The Upgrades
by The Wallflower
Summary: Mega Man asks Dr. Light to make him more biologically complete. Roll finds out and asks for the same. But what will they do when they realize they are the only two robots on Earth with genitalia?
1. Chapter 1

Copyright 2013 by Eric J. Juneau. All rights reserved.

This story is in no way intended to infringe on the established copyrights and trademarks of Capcom Co., Ltd. It is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended for sale. It may be freely distributed providing that no alterations to the story are made.

This story contains crude indecent language, intensely suggestive dialogue, and explicit sexual activity. It is not intended for readers under the age of 18. Reader discretion is advised.

The characters and incidents portrayed and the names in this story used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the name, character, or history of any person, living, dead, or otherwise, is purely coincidental and unintentional.

* * *

**The Upgrades**  
by Eric J. Juneau

Author's Note: This is an adult story with explicit sexual content and adult situations. However, FanFiction's policy forbids such content. So those parts are censored. If you wish to read the uncensored version, please view my profile for more information.

CHAPTER 1

"Doctor Light?" Mega Man said.

Thomas Light was stooped under a computer tower, fiddling with cords snaking out of an open panel. "Yes, Rock?"

"I'd like to be anatomically correct."

Light jerked and banged his head on the top of the console. "What-?"

Warning klaxons burst out of the machine. Light grabbed his fallen screw-pincer and reconnected the offending wires. Another few seconds and the motherboard would have burnt out.

Light wriggled out from under the apparatus and dusted himself off. "Rock, what in the world did you say?"

Rock was not in his battle armor, but a plain white shirt. "I said I'd like to be anatomically correct. For my gender."

"I understand that part, just... Why?"

"I think gender identity is an important part of understanding humanity. Roll and I have heterogynous appearances, but no genitalia."

"Because you have no need. You don't procreate. In fact, you can't procreate. It's illegal for robots to create other robots."

Mega Man held up his hand. "I understand that. I'm not asking for permission to procreate. Just to resemble humans a little better."

Light put his hand on his hip. "And how will having... stuff... help you understand humanity? That's only a small part of it." Light immediately regretted his pun.

"There are countless psychology papers and books demonstrating how important sexuality is in decision-making, self-image, behavior, social stratification-"

"Okay, okay," Light held up his hand. "But your 'behavior' isn't based on that. It's based on amalgamated human cognition. That's how AI works. And your personal identity is already formed. You're a tool-user. And sometimes warrior for justice. You don't need sexuality in the mix. That could be a distraction."

"I'm not asking for an identity change, just a change to my physical structure. You don't need to add any additional software to my matrix."

"So... you just want the hardware?" Light scratched his head. "That makes even less sense. It wouldn't add anything."

Mega Man shrugged. "I feel like I'm missing something. I suppose it's an unspoken part of culture. Right now, I'm little better than a doll. Being a robot makes it difficult enough to fit in with humans."

"But you... I mean, I'm sorry, Rock," Light put his hand on Mega Man's shoulder. He could feel his creation's solid titanium endoskeleton under his spongy synthetic skin. "But by definition, you're not human. You never can be human."

"I know. But I would like to improve public perception of me. I am a figurehead of robot-human relations," Rock continued. "Like it or not."

Dr. Light thought back to the recent backlash. National sentiment of independently-operating automated coadjutants - also known as robots and robot masters - was at an all-time low.

Dr. Wily's warfare was bad enough. Most recently, he had framed Dr. Light for his trademark robotic riots. Then he created a virus for robots all over the world, causing them to go berserk. But the issues had gone beyond simple rebellions.

With more than fifteen attacks, people were wondering whether robots were worth the trouble, whether they were more hazardous than helpful. There needed to be either a significant increase in AI advancement or the prohibition of all but the most primitive automatons.

Light nodded. "I suppose you are a bit of a beacon. At least I couldn't have asked for a better man for the job. All right." Light patted Mega Man's shoulder. "I'll do it. I suppose you have a point. I'll hash up some blueprints and get back to you." Light held up his finger. "Nothing fancy."

"I understand. Thank you."

* * *

Designing robotic private parts was not as easy as Light first thought, even as an external supplement. For one thing, he never designed any humanoids with the notion of sex organs. His robots were his children, and only a depraved father would want to think of his children as sexual.

Rock and Roll, his first successful and stable humanoid robots, were both genderless (except for their hairstyles). Besides that, they were identical. Their experiences shaped their personalities because of the way people interacted with them. That was a feature of the learning algorithm - Roll became feminine because people treated her that way, and Rock adopted masculine qualities because people expected those from him.

The other problem, despite Rock's reassurance, was changing the software to compensate for the new appendage. For one thing, he was going to have to downgrade the firmware (Light rubbed his face again at the pun) for it to work with Rock's older design.

Plus all the other little details. Should he be circumcised or not? What length? What girth? What shape? None of these were things Light wanted to think about, let alone design. Where was Dr. Wily when you needed him? His specialty was always hardware, although chances were slim he'd ever made modifications like this. He would have been more concerned about where to place a plasma cannon or a drill.

Light drew up working templates on his CAD-CAM profiler. While waiting for code to compile, he spent the idle time wondering about the moral implications of his actions. All robots that passed a Turing intelligence test had to be programmed with the three Asimovian rules for robots:

1. A robot must never harm a human or allow a human to come to harm.  
2. A robot must always follow a human's orders, unless that action conflicts with the first rule.  
3. A robot must always work to preserve its existence, unless that action conflicts with the first two rules.

After refining the design, Light couldn't perceive where contradictions might occur. But when the work was complete, how would its mere presence affect Rock's personality?

A beeping signal interrupted his deductions. Light thumbed the monitor and saw the words "INCOMING COMMUNICATION: Dr. Mikhail Sergeyevich Cossack, Ph. D. Moscow, Russia." He smirked and acknowledged the comm channel - audio only.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Light? Hope I didn't catch you at a bad time," Cossack said with a thick Eastern European accent.

"Not at all. Just working on some designs," Light said as he stared at a giant CG-rendered penis.

"Designs, hm? You never stop working, do you?"

"Is that what you're expecting at the conference? Announcing my retirement?" Light laughed.

"I'd prefer that over what you're _going_ to say. Unless you've changed your mind."

"I have not," Light said with a flippant authoritarian air. "I haven't even deviated from the outline I showed you."

Cossack sighed. "I don't suppose there's any way I'm going to convince you that this is a bad idea."

"Bad idea? You know me, Mikhail. I intend to support the Asimov Accord to its letter. I even helped draft some of the articles in it."

"You do know what's going to happen if it passes?"

"_When_ it passes," Light said. Authorizing the Asimov Accord was only a formality at this point. Conference leaders already had the charter written, framed, approved, and all but signed.

The accord would serve as a Geneva Convention for robotics, rectifying some throwbacks and reforming it to accept new, expanding technology. The most controversial subject was that the amendments essentially repealed the existing Laws of Robotics.

And this couldn't have made Dr. Light happier. He knew the struggles of not only programming AI to adhere to the three laws (and all their loopholes), but advancing technology in the face of such archaic rules. In short, this would give Dr. Light the chance to see something he never thought he would in his lifetime - robots with free will.

"So why would I change my mind?" Light asked.

"I thought you'd maybe recanted," Cossack said. "Because I heard you have an interview with Lonney Kenyon in a few days."

"That's a standard news journal. Nothing new there. I doubt they'll be asking anything I don't already have an answer for. All they'd need to do is cut and paste from past interviews."

"You know they're going to play devil's advocate. _Worldline_ always does. They have a very conservative view."

"And I'll be glad to defend my position."

Cossack laughed. "That's what I thought. Stubborn old Light with the heart of gold. I'll see you at the conference."

Light poised his finger over the END button. "I'll be sure to look for you."

They said their goodbyes and disconnected. Light didn't realize how thankful he was for the distraction until he turned back, saw the images, and remembered what he was working on.

* * *

Roll yanked the vacuum rod cord from under the door and asked herself if she should add a humming subroutine to her voice. She enjoyed her work. She derived pleasure from it. And humming was one of the things humans did when they enjoyed menial work.

But was that appropriate for a robot? Would it annoy anyone? No one was around, so no. But did it excise unnecessary energy? And would that violate the Third Law?

These were the sorts of things Roll thought about while housekeeping, and she often had time to think. Her personality matrix predisposed itself to internalizing, analyzation, and deduction - to improve efficiency in her housekeeping duties.

This room complete, she entered the adjacent room - a small conference center. Rock sat on a chair, his back turned to her.

"Good morning," she said.

"Morning," Rock said.

He sounded distracted. What was he so interested in? Roll walked around his chair, and found her brother doing something she'd never seen before. His pants were down and he was holding something in his lap.

"What is that?"

Rock looked up into her blue eyes. "It's new. Dr. Light made it for me."

Roll bent down to get a closer look. "When?"

"He finished the molds yesterday, installed it in the night. I've been experimenting with it since. Feeling what it's like to have one."

...

Roll grinned. "Are you really getting pleasure from this?" she asked.

Mega Man froze, then turned back to her. "Actually, no. I just did that because I thought that's what you're supposed to do. I'm not getting any neural feedback."

"You're clearly stimulated."

"Yes, but from here... I'm not sure what's supposed to happen. It feels empty. Like no build-up leading to something."

"Is there supposed to be?"

Rock stiffened his lip. "I think so."


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

"Dr. Light, I think what you did for me isn't working," Mega Man said.

Light didn't look from his triple-monitor computer. Goggles covered his eyes. "What do you mean?"

One screen contained a discolored wireframe Light could only interpret using his special glasses. Another had a graph and scrolling lines of code. The third displayed a draft of his speech to the robotics convention. It did not have much more content than "Speech for International Conference on Artificial and Synthetic Intelligence".

"I think the upgrades may be malfunctioning," Rock said.

"What's the behavior?"

"I think it's more a lack of behavior. I don't get any pleasure from manipulation."

"You're not supposed to. It's ornamental," Light said, glancing between the two monitors that didn't contain his speech. "It's not attached to your higher functions."

"Could it be?"

Light sighed, took off his goggles, and sat back in his chair. "First, why in the world would you want it to? And what would you do if it was?"

"It feels like it's only half-finished. It's like needing to deliver information and not quite making the connection. There's no feeling of satisfaction or resolve." Mega Man pled to Light with his eyes.

Light hunched over in his chair and rubbed his eyebrows. "I don't even know how that would work. How would you even _get_ pleasure? You have nothing like an endocrine system. You don't have neurons or endorphins. You have circuits and programming."

"Surely there's got to be some robotic equivalent. I share so many human characteristics, both inside and out. Maybe something within the AI?"

"It would be an illusion. Instead of receiving pleasure, you would be getting a message like 'you have pleasure'. And your reactions would be for humans to interpret. That's why it's called 'artificial' intelligence. It's synthetically created."

"If robots are just artificial people, can't you artificially create those sensations?"

Light sat back. "Well, it's not that simple. You can't just... unless..." He hunched again, thinking. "If I could overclock the systems, that would build up energy. It would have to be brief though. But then so is an orgasm. Also, it's not quite same sensation - it's more of a slowing. A blanking euphoria."

"But that can be simulated, right?"

"Yes, that part would be easy. But the integrity of it, I'd have no idea. And the secondary effects like freezing of muscles... I could add an interrupt to the vocalizations."

Light turned to his computer and typed out a few notes into his development environment. Then a few more. Ideas poured out of him as he hovered over his keyboard. He had to write it all down before he lost it.

Once he was drained, he sat back. "This could work. With some refinement."

"How long will it take to implement?"

"Not long. This will be just programming. The hardware is already in place. In fact, it... but..." He sat back and sighed.

"What is it?"

"I was just thinking how, this is another step towards..." He gave a side-glance to Rock. "That was the problem with your brother, you know. We made him too human."

"I..." Mega Man swallowed. "I don't think that's going to happen to me."

"No, no, of course not. Your systems are totally different. Different configurations, hardware. Something like that _could_ never happen to you."

"I won't let it happen to me." Rock bowed respectfully. "Thank you, Dr. Light. I really appreciate this. I know you've been so busy..."

"Don't worry about it," Light said. Rock left him to work.

He spent the rest of the day on Rock's modifications, occasionally pecking out a few words during compile time. It didn't take long for Light to finalize the software, run it, debug it, and deploy it to a rough simulation of Rock's AI framework. Everything seemed fine - no interference with existing thought routines or pattern recognition. And his interface could handle the extra load.

Still, Light was nervous. He'd never made anything like this before, never intended to. Rock had the three laws installed, but these new values tested the boundaries of his standard operating parameters. Light had the feeling like when he left on vacation and forgot something.

He didn't even realize evening had come when the door opened. He expected to see Rock, eager to take the next step towards being human. Instead, it was Roll.

"Doctor Light?" she said. "I'd like to be anatomically correct."

Light's mouth gaped. "You? Why? Why in the world would you want that?" He shirked away. "Don't tell me you want a penis too."

Roll laughed. "No, no. I'm obviously a girl. Why would I want boy parts?"

"I don't know." Light rubbed his face. "It's been a long day. I haven't left this desk, designing upgrades for your brother. This is because of him, isn't it?"

"Somewhat. But moreover, I feel there's something missing from my body. The way I figure it, you made me with gender in mind. Why not make me with sex?"

Light hoped she meant "sex" as an attribute. "Because you can't possibly be having sex. Sex is for procreation, primarily. Any of the secondary effects that come from it - those are exclusive to humans."

"That's the problem. I'm the more human of the two of us. I have a human job, I act as your liaison and assistant. Yet, I still have trouble relating to humans. Some treat me warmly, some treat me as a slave, or worse, a machine. Even though I don't outwardly resemble a robot."

"I can't argue with that. But that has nothing to do with sex."

"Sex is something humans bond over. It's one of the primal differences between us. Many men and women discuss matters of a sexual nature, and I can't join in these. Women especially. Their greatest bonds form over matters of biology and relationships."

"And a vagina is going to help that?"

"It might. I think anything would help. If it doesn't, then nothing changes."

"I don't have time for this," Light said. "I have multiple speeches to write. I'm arguing against Asimovian rules while trying to enforce them with this." He gestured to the lines of code on the computer screen.

"Please," Roll held her hands together. "It wouldn't take long. I checked my designs. There's already a slight cavity there. And it's not like you're making a whole reproductive system."

He had already designed the software for Rock. The same could apply to Roll with few modifications - their architecture was almost identical.

Light waved his hand. "Fine. I should have something later tonight. I can work on it while I'm upgrading your brother. And tell him to come in here. I'm ready to go over this with him."

* * *

In-between load times, Light cobbled together some sentences for his speech. He was a programmer, not a speech writer. And everything he wrote sounded too procedural. First this, then that. If not this, then this. Every paragraph involved several hopeful glances to the other monitor and the number in front of "percent complete".

After a valid checksum and three correct diagnostics, both Mega Man and Roll's new AI deployments finished. He activated their start-up programs. Rock awoke first, blinking his eyes. Next to him, Roll's eyelids fluttered.

There would never be enough showers in the world to cleanse Light's spirit after working on her. It was like making a sex doll - one that looked like his own daughter. Roll used to be an endearing cherub who dutifully swept and cooked. Now she was a mature high schooler, with adult breasts, hips, and thighs. And other things.

"Did it work?" Rock asked. On start-up, he'd already checked his subroutines, made sure all existing programming was there, and the new software update was established. Roll did the same.

"Everything seems fine from my end," Light said. "How do you feel?"

Rock felt his body. All his physical features were still there. He felt a little more mature, a little more adult.

"Different," Roll said.

"Me too." Rock said.

"I feel a little quivery," Roll said.

"I have so many stronger desires," Rock said. "Like I'm holding a little dog that barks at everything."

"That sounds about right," Dr. Light said, remembering his high school days. "Well, if you don't find any errors..."

"None," Rock said. Roll shook her head as well.

"Good, then both of you, go about your business. I've spent too much time on this already. I've still got to finish this speech. Then revise it. And I've got a news program to go on. I have to clean myself up. Get my dress suit."

"I can take care of that, Dr. Light," Roll said.

"Yes, yes. But I've got to put it on. Go, go. You're already..." He grunted and turned back to the computer.

Roll and Rock smiled. It wasn't atypical to see him trail off like a doddering old man. Scientific reports spoke of the mind slowing as age increased. And Light had so many things to think about.

They backed away out of the laboratory. Outside, Mega Man took a breath of air.

"What are you going to do?" Roll asked.

"I'm going to try out my new systems," he replied gleefully. "What about you?"

"Yes, I suppose I'll do that. Although I have a few responsibilities first." She gestured back to Light's lab. "But I'm not even sure how to start with this new physiology."

Mega Man put a finger to his chin. "You know, I don't either. It's like having the tools, but not knowing how to use them."

Both of them underwent intense training periods during their first activations. Contrary to what most people thought, AI did not equate to instant knowledge and comprehension. Robots were learning machines, and robots like Rock and Roll needed to learn how to be human.

"I suppose more research is warranted." Rock snickered. "I'm sure the Internet has no shortage of source material."

Roll laughed too. "We still have our normal duties though. Perhaps we should split the labor."

"You study sociological aspects, I'll analyze biological."

"Agreed."

* * *

Roll stood in front of the full-length mirror. She could have brought up blueprints, run diagnostics, formed data models, but that wasn't what she wanted. She wanted to know what she looked like. To see what humans see.

The house was clean beyond recognition, the bills were paid, the garden was weeded and fed, and dinner was prepared. This was her reward to herself for completing her duties - a chance to fully examine her body for the first time.

The red dress she traditionally wore felt smaller. She'd already let it out to compensate for her new shape. But more than that, it didn't feel like it fit her personality anymore.

Roll pinched one of the shoulder straps. She hesitated. Was undressing appropriate? Right now? She was in a private room, though. And this was her body.

She tugged the band the rest of the way down, taking the top of the undershirt with it. Her left breast bulged and popped out. This was it. This was her license to womanhood.

Her fingers released the strap and caressed the soft flesh of her breast. She didn't know what to expect - she had never felt a human breast. Would it feel rubbery and synthetic, like so many sexbots? Would it fall into the uncanny valley of "creepily unreal"?

But by touching it, a warm, comforting sensation spread in her body, compounded by small vibrating sparks. The tips of her fingers brushed her puffy pink nipple. They traced around the crinkly areola. More small shocks triggered as the warm feeling fell to the background.

This was new. Her AI gave her feelings of pleasure before - satisfaction of a job well done, amusement at comedy, contentment from luxury. But this felt different. More fundamental, more primal, more arousing.

She brought down her other strap. Now topless, she stood before the mirror, hands cupping her breasts. She pushed them up, pressing them into her chest, then let them drop. The sensations were exquisite. She giggled.

Unable to resist, she wriggled the dress off until it lay wrinkled on the floor. She stood before the mirror, naked and all flesh. Through comparative analysis, her body most closely resembled a sixteen-year-old girl. And a well-developed one. Now she understood why some men looked at her a certain way.

...

Roll pulled her clothes back on, slipping on one strap after the other. She'd learned all she could about her own sexuality - it was time to compare notes.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Once she found where Mega Man was - an access terminal in a remote part of the mansion - Roll pushed open the door quietly to not startle him. For a robot, information accumulation could be daunting and needed concentration.

His chair was back to her so only the top of his head showed. But she could hear him breathing. Heavy, rugged. On the computer screen, a human male and female engaged in coitus.

Her breath caught in her throat. Did she continue walking in? She'd already seen his new parts, but did he adopt the same privacy taboos as humans?

The camera turned upward, angled to show most of the female's hunched body with the male behind, thrusting mechanically. The woman clenched her teeth while she white-knuckled a couch. Her hazy eyes sparkled as she spouted trite phrases, asking him to "give it to her", to "wreck her pussy", and if he "liked to feel it tight".

The male, meanwhile, fired one rapid grunt after another, as if he were somewhere else. His face had a glazed expression, like his skin, where sweat glistened all over his taut body. He slammed against her over and over. It seemed almost violent.

As she watched, her cheeks reddened. Her throughput quickened also - a brief surge of overclocking processes. It was the same feeling as when she'd touched herself down there.

She strafed across the room for a better view. Rock had one blue hand braced against the chair's arm rest. The other gripped his cock. He bucked into his fist at the same pace as the man in the video.

When she first saw his penis, soft and spongy, she had no feelings one way or the other. It was a new part of his architecture - curious and nothing else. Maybe now that she saw it erect, rigid, and active, something snapped inside her. A yearning, gluttonous and avaricious.

Mega Man's breath increased, then stalled. His voice strained, like an audio error. Then Roll realized - he was having an orgasm.

Roll knew, in all ways, this was wrong. She had interloped on an intimate moment. Not only that, but this was her brother. Maybe not in the biological sense, but in the relationship sense. On the other hand, that relationship was defined by human conventions.

Mega Man's shoulders slumped. He let out a deep, cleansing breath, like a great weight had lifted off him. He rotated his chair and spotted her.

"Hi, Roll," he said. "How are you?"

"Good," Roll said, betraying none of her feelings. She was trying hard not to stare at Rock's crotch - his hands still around his fat member - but the impulse was unbearable. "I came to see what you've learned. I see you're still exploring."

"I have. Here, let me send you some info."

Mega Man sent Roll wireless data - pure numbers, test cases, experiments, and statistics - quantifiable data regarding physiological experiences only a computer would be interested in.

...

"Do you think you're ready to have sex?" Roll asked.

Mega Man, for the first time, took his hand off his penis. Now flaccid, it flopped over like a limp noodle. One hand scratched his chin while the other sat on the armrest.

"Well... I'd say yes. But I've been thinking about that, and I'm not sure it's three laws safe."

Roll murmured. She hadn't thought of that, but it made sense.

"I mean, there are humans who enjoy mixing pleasure and pain, and others who feign resistance, who give mixed signals. Plus robots and humans are built differently - one misstep might result in a violation."

"I guess we'd have to practice on another robot before we're ready," Roll said.

"Oh, no, no. I could never ask Dr. Light to do that. I've already bothered him enough, I can't ask him to build a whole new robot just for sexual experimentation."

"He doesn't have to." Roll took a breath. If she didn't do it now, she'd be afraid to try again later. "We could always practice with, um... each other."

Rock shriveled up in his chair. "Don't you think that's kind of... I mean, we're... like, siblings. I mean, almost. We share an AI base."

"We're only siblings by human conventions. Because Dr. Light says so. You and I both know robots don't work like that."

If robots had to follow different laws than humans, they followed different norms as well. Robots shared no families, no genetics, no established rules, except what humans imposed.

"I guess that's true," Mega Man said. "But other humans might. I'm certain Dr. Light would become extraordinarily upset."

"I'm certain too. But he doesn't have to know. Come on, you said it yourself - it's one thing to know and another to experience. Don't you want to find out what it's all about? You don't want to be stuck masturbating all your life."

"I guess. There are some humans that find even _that_ wrong."

"Right, just because they're humans doesn't mean they make the right judgments. And don't you find me sexually attractive?"

Roll pulled off the straps of the red dress she always wore. Her breasts ballooned out, ripened from seeing so much arousing imagery.

"Well, yes. I..."

"I think you're attractive." Roll allowed herself to gaze longingly at Rock's thick hose, dangling off the edge of his chair. "I've been imagining what this could be like for a long time."

"But you're my sister."

"Maybe," Roll said. "But we're the only two robots in the world who can have sex."

Her pink nipples pointed at him. Rock wanted to know what they felt like, from the creamy underside to the perky areolas, to the smooth midriff leading down to...

"No, I can't," he said.

"It's all right, Rock. It's not like we really have a choice, if you think about it."

Rock nodded. "All right, I guess we can try _some_ sex acts. Just for experience. Let's take it slow, though. No penetration."

"And if it doesn't work, we can always stop, right?"

"Right."

...

After ten seconds of extreme power surging, it stopped as fast as it started. He released the kiss. Foreheads pressing together, they panted for a while. Roll breathed as heavy as he did. "Oh my god," he said.

"I know," Roll said, adding to herself, _that's what it's like to be human_. She collapsed onto Rock's chest. Her brother's chest. Did she really just do that? But it felt okay. It didn't feel wrong at the time.

Now that desire no longer fogged her head, questions formed. What did this mean? Did her relationship with her brother change? Was this what she wanted? Maybe it was an inevitable part that came with a change like this.

Rock rubbed his hand up her side, from her thigh to her hips. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just kinda overwhelmed. I started shaking, and then my body went all rigid."

"First time," Mega Man said.

"It wasn't what I was expecting."

"Yeah. I know. Was it better?"

She bit her lip, looked out at the wall. "Yes, it was."

"Do you want to do it again?"


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Roll and Mega Man stood naked, staring at each other. Neither knew what to say.

...

"Do it again? Don't you need a refractory period?" Roll asked.

"Human men do, but my programming doesn't seem to include that. I think Dr. Light might have missed something. I've had three thousand, six hundred, and thirty-five experiences that I think I can label as orgasms."

Roll drew back. "That's so many... Are you going to tell Dr. Light?"

"No. Why would I? It's a necessary feature in humans to prevent nerves overloading. But there's no point in a constructed being. Besides, robots are meant to do everything faster." Mega Man smiled.

"'It's not a bug, it's a feature'," she said, quoting an old programmer's joke.

"Exactly."

Roll thought this would be a one-time thing. "I'm not so sure we should keep going. The more encounters we have, the more risk we take. We are brother and sister." She raised her hand before Mega Man could protest. "I know it's only taboo to humans. But we live in a world of humans. If anyone found out about this, we could be deactivated."

"No , not after all we've done for the world," Mega Man said. "Besides, for the sake of argument, if we _were_ related on a genetic level, that doesn't make it wrong necessarily. There's no chance of offspring. And if we stop now, we're missing out on so many more aspects of sexuality. It doesn't matter who we are to each other. We're both consenting people, enjoying pleasure."

Roll cocked her head to the side, then finally nodded. "All right, but we can't tell Dr. Light about this. It would devastate him. No matter our beliefs, we can't risk it."

"Agreed. So do you want to do it again?"

Roll smiled. "All right. You can be the dominant one this time."

Mega Man had a few ideas he wanted to try, based on his research and the previous experience. He stepped up behind her.

Roll wasn't sure what he was doing - she already had mixed feelings about this sex in the first place.

"You really are sweet and pretty and sexy," he said. He pulled away her hair and kissed her neck.

Then the fluttery feeling started. Quivers popped in the lower part of her belly. Doubt gave way to desire as she rolled her neck to him.

"Wow, what are you doing to me?" she asked.

He didn't respond, but kept nipping at her skin, then wrapped his arms around her. Roll felt secure in those big arms of her brother's. She swallowed at the thought.

...

Mega Man dropped, exhausted.

"Are you all right?" Roll asked. Depleted power meant potential overload of his solar-pile reactor.

"A little taxed," Mega Man said. "But I'm fine, just alloy tension. I like it." He smiled. "Makes me feel restful."

...

"I'd say we could do it again, but I don't think we have time," Mega Man said.

"No, we don't. At least the encounters take about the human average."

"Yes, that's nice."

Roll examined the scene from an objective view. The two of them, siblings, sitting naked on the floor, staring at each other. Roll thought, _What would Dr. Light say if he saw us?_

"Are you enjoying this?" Roll asked.

Mega Man nodded. "It makes me feel closer to a human experience. At least in terms of sexuality. And there's still plenty to explore. We've only scratched the surface, so to speak."

"We should get our clothes on," Roll said.

Roll re-draped herself with her red dress, covering up the dry and flaking remnants of her brother's spunk. As Mega Man sleeved his pants and shirt, he asked, "What should we try next?"

"Not sure. There's a variety of acts. But we should try for more common ones."

"Anal sex?"

Roll stood up. "I don't have an anus. That wouldn't work." Roll bit her lip. It was such an unnecessary part for a robot, and yet, that was one of the more fundamental experiences of being human. Used for more than just waste. Yet, she could never imagine asking Dr. Light for one. The same applied for drawing blood or urine play.

"What about role reversal?" Roll asked. "Where I penetrate you somehow?"

"How would that be done?"

"According to research, it can be done using a tool, such as a strapped-on phallus."

"Again, same problem. I have even less apertures than you. Except maybe the mouth. But that seems to be delving into homoeroticism, which is something else entirely. How about amputation? It's one of the rarer fetishes, but still..."

Roll looked down at her arm socket. She unlocked the internal servos then grabbed her right arm. It disconnected at the shoulder, exposing a metal joint connector circled with rectangular lights. She held the arm away from her. "Anything?"

"Mmm, no. I guess that takes on a different meaning as a human."

"Where parts aren't supposed to be detachable?" Roll added as she replaced her arm.

"Exactly."

She realized just because she had sexual organs didn't mean she was completely human. Even if all her hardware were replaced with human equivalents, there would still be certain mindsets she could never emulate.

"We could try a rape fantasy," Mega Man suggested.

Roll smirked. "Good idea. But I don't see how to resolve my psyche for that. I can't consent to decline consent. That's a logical fallacy."

"I see. It's impossible for you to want to be raped. That negates the definition."

Roll could see Mega Man was as frustrated as her. "We don't have to descend into such uncommon fetishes right away. There are still many different positions and techniques we haven't explored."

"Many of them are variations on a theme," Mega Man said.

"True, but those subtleties are part of the pleasure. Besides, would it be so bad to explore them all? We have the time."

Mega Man grinned. "Yes, but not now. I think Dr. Light is expecting you."

* * *

A shirt flew out of the closet. The robotic suitcase scuttled over and caught it in his open top. Tiny, spindly arms jutting out of the hinge folded the shirt, then placed it neatly inside. The suitcase closed and sent the shirt through the material transport unit.

A pair of shoes flew out. The suitcase caught them, closed its lid, and did the same thing, compressing the shoes at the molecular level. It was similar to the transport/teleport circuitry Mega Man used, but kept the items in a state of energy flux, allowing nearly unlimited storage. When Light Robotics began to lose business, after the third robot revolution of Dr. Wily, the personal cybernetic suitcase saved it from financial failure.

Dr. Light poked his head out of the closet. "Eddie, what items do I have left?"

Eddie buzzed, "Nightwear. Toothbrush."

"Toothbrush, that's it," Light mused. He scuttled to the bathroom. "Always forgetting the toothbrush."

Roll entered Dr. Light's quarters. "Dr. Light. I have the outfit for the interview."

"Time?" he called back.

"Seven minutes. You should get down to the media center."

"Blast it all." Dr. Light threw the toothbrush at Eddie. His flip-top snapped it up like a trained dog.

Roll stood with a shirt and tie, already noosed. Light approached Roll, shedding his lab coat.

"They're presenting you behind a desk, so you won't need a full suit," Roll said.

Light turned around and allowed Roll to pull the dress clothes over his head. "Some days I have nothing but time. Other days, everything happens at once."

"I know that feeling," Roll said, maintaining a pleasant, calming lilt.

He turned back to her. "How do I look?"

Roll shaped his coiffed, white hair into a more presentable puffy cloud. "Good."

Dr. Light and Roll headed downstairs. The media center was a smaller room where Light could conduct teleconferences and stream holo-projections, both to and from the mansion.

"Where is your brother?" Light asked.

"What? Oh. I'm not sure."

"If you see him, can you tell him to interface with Eddie and finish packing? I'll never be ready for the conference at this rate. I still haven't finished my speech. And now they've put me on a panel about robot defense strategies. I never agreed to that. At least, I don't remember agreeing..."

Light's eyes went glassy as Roll led him to a room where flood lamps and monitors covered the wall, as in a recording studio. Light sat down in a cylindrical booth on an office chair. The scanning colonnades hummed to life as Roll straightened out Light's collar.

"And I'm expected to attend the after party. Full of technicians I won't know," Light said.

"It'll be all right," Roll said as she smoothed out his eyebrows. "Just focus on the interview for now. We'll handle one thing at a time."

"Yes, yes," Light said. He took a deep breath.

"The studio is making a connection now," Roll said, having all incoming communications monitored.

Two screens sat outside the booth, almost invisible through the smoked glass. One displayed a view of the entire studio, so Light could somewhat feel as if he was in the room with them. Another showed his holographic image as seen on TV, outlined with a faint blue aura. With his white lab coat and corpulent body, he resembled a cotton ball, especially with his white beard and bushy hair.

"Thirty seconds," Roll said.

The opening theme began. Lights dimmed in the studio as chatter regarding cues and shots diminished. Then sound returned with a fanfare, full of brass and drums, as the show's title, "Worldline with Lonney Kenyon" whirled around a metallic globe. Profiles of the guests followed. Then the camera zoomed in on the show's host, a grim-looking man with thin hair and horn-rimmed glasses.

"Good evening. Welcome to Worldline. I'm Lonney Kenyon. Tonight we'll be discussing the upcoming conference on Artificial and Synthetic Intelligence put on by RAIDA. This is the big one. The world's top roboticists are going to be voting on various issues, not the least of which is the Asimov Accord, which will make sweeping changes to the laws of robotics. Are these men the harbingers of the future? Or are we setting ourselves up for another revolution? One that we may not be able to win."

The camera shifted as Lonney Kenyon turned around in his chair to face his round table of guests. All were in-studio except for Light.

"With me tonight is Caethma Thames, a proponent of the Accord."

A pleasant, ginger-headed woman with rosy cheeks smiled and nodded. She looked like someone's mom - utterly harmless.

"Mike Carvel from the Human Reclamation League," Kenyon continued.

A man with a smooth, bald head, and thin glasses grinned. Light thought his mouth resembled a viper's - small teeth and thin lips.

"And Dr. Thomas Xavier Light, one of the world's most famous roboticists, joining us via hologram."

Dr. Light nodded. In the studio, his projection gave the same motion an imperceptible second later.

"Dr. Light, we'll start with you," Kenyon said. "You've been one of the most vocal about Asimov's Accord. Why do you think it's a good idea?"

"Well, simply stated, robots are evolving. That's a fact. They continue to evolve closer to humans every day. And we owe it to them to give them the same personal rights that we do-"

"Now, now, hold on thereaminnit," said Carvel, in a nasal, southern drawl. "I'm gonna stop you right there. Now, how you can you be advocating for robot freedom when you yourself are responsible for multiple robot uprisings."

"I am not responsible for any uprisings. I had nothing to do-"

"Partially responsible, then."

"Dr. Wily is the full-"

"Dr. Wily. _Your_ partner."

"Former partner."

"You held him in your employment. Twice. The second time he took over a giant robot _you_ made named Gamma, which you called a 'peace-keeping' robot." Carvel made air-quotes, then continued at a breakneck pace, allowing no one to interrupt him unless he allowed it. "I think it's safe to say you gave him ideas. He used your designs, your plans, to create those robots."

"He stole them, but that doesn't mean I'm responsible."

"Mr. Carvel," said Caethma Thomas, in a motherly, condescending tone. "Trying to paint Dr. Light as a criminal won't work. The government's already absolved him of any wrongdoing-"

"How about robot number DLN-000? How about him, huh?"

"DLN-000?" Kenyon pointedly asked.

"The robot you named 'Blues'. Or more well-known as Protoman."

Dr. Light started, "I've explained the situation with Protoman over and over again. I think, if anything-"

"A robot known to be rogue and you've just let him loose, free to go all over the world-"

"I did not let him loose. It is a programmatic glitch."

"One that you've never been able to correct."

"Because I've never been able to get him back to my lab." Light realized his voice had raised and he was rising out of his seat. "I haven't gotten the chance. If he'd allow me-"

"Oh, so now we've got robots that need to _allow_ us to fix them? Lonney, this is just what I'm talking about." Carvel leaned over the table, as if he were having a private conversation. "This accord passes, you can _guarantee_ robots are going to want more and more rights. It's happened in the past with women, minorities, transgenders."

"Has Protoman ever hurt anyone?" Light asked, jumping on the half-second pause. Carvel opened his mouth. Light pounced on him at the last moment. "I remind you it was the Dark Man robot who posed as Protoman and was responsible for the destruction and my kidnapping. Not Protoman. He's the one who saved me."

Light ran out of breath, trying to say everything in a single gasp. Carvel jumped on the opportunity.

"And where is he now? Why doesn't he show himself?"

"All he wants is his freedom," Light said. "And I'm willing to give it to him. If anything, he's a perfect example of why the laws need revision."

"So, you're defending the actions of a robot that can't be controlled? A robot too _human_ to control. Sounds like we're setting up the human race for second place. You see, Lonney-" Carvel leaned in again.

Dr. Light interrupted. It felt rude, but it was the only way to get a word in. "Robots are automatons. That's what defines them. They use their senses to interact with the world in a way that's not necessarily dependent on automatic task fulfillment. Robots must be able to judge, evaluate, and reason."

The three others stared at him - his hologram - as if he was naked. Then Carvel turned back to Kenyon.

"This is what I'm talking about. What has this issue been all about? More intelligent robots. And more of them. You can't give a child a gun and expect him not to shoot. It's bad enough they take our jobs, replace us as caregivers and companions. This conference is nothing more than a-"

Light drifted off - he'd been in these debate programs long enough to know when the winner was declared. He had no idea he was sweating until a trickle fell onto his nose. He wiped it off, hoping the camera wasn't on him. Did holographic projectors pick up that level of detail? His cheeks felt warm. Too much stress, too much talking.

"Dr. Light?"

He realized Kenyon was asking him a question. "Hm?"

"What do you think?"

"About what?"

"About what Dr. Thames suggested... about the robot learning provisions."

"Oh, well. That would be a... AI is notoriously difficult. I've been struggling all my life to get it right, and one of the biggest restrictions has been the Asimovian laws."

"I... don't think that was what Dr. Thames was referring to."

"Oh." Then what was the question? Why wasn't anyone talking to him?

Instead of clarifying, Kenyon swiveled to the camera. "We'll be right back after a brief advertisement."

The music started, the camera pulled back to Carvel and Thames discussing something. Light brushed more sweat off his forehead. It felt like everyone was laughing at a joke he didn't get.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

...

"Oh my god, that was great. That was the greatest ever," Mega Man said.

He disengaged the shackles around his wrists with a few deft taps of his fingers, then reached down for his ankle cuffs. Roll picked up her panties and a towel.

"You know," he continued, "I don't know why humans aren't constantly engaged in sex. It's a fantastic sensation with none of the side-effects of pharmaceuticals. I'm surprised they aren't locked in one great, sweaty orgy."

Roll grimaced as she pulled off the leather gloves. Again, the experience wasn't quite what she had expected. With each encounter, the thrill was diminishing. Now she understood the phrase "the bloom is off the rose".

"You're leaving already?" Mega Man asked.

"I have other duties to attend to. I can't spend all day having sex with you." Roll shimmied out of the bustier and picked up her red dress. "I still don't know what the leather does. The texture is unpleasant."

"I think it's a psychological effect of impenetrable, rigid material," Mega Man said. "The whole point of BDSM acts are to distance oneself from intimacy."

"That explains some of the feelings I had during the act," Roll said. None of which were pleasant.

"Funny, I thought you would be happier on the other side of the encounter."

"You're the one who suggested it," Roll said. "Speaking of encounters, they're starting to consume all my time between duties."

"Not for me," Mega Man said.

"Well, of course not. You're only needed for maintenance or repair."

"When I'm not saving the world," said Mega Man indignantly.

"Well, you're not saving the world right now," Roll responded just as indignantly. "If I spend all my time having sex, I'll never get anything done."

"Are you saying we need to cut back? There's still a lot of variables and experiences we have left."

"I know," Roll patted him on the cheek. "But that doesn't mean we have to do them all now."

If Mega Man had a less mature personality matrix, he'd be pouting. He loved this. He loved having it, doing it. Everything from the first touch of foreplay to the explosive climax. He loved the give and take. He loved the multiple facets of it - aggressive, gentle, intimate, hateful. He wanted more of it. Like a kid who'd tried ice cream for the first time and wanted every flavor.

The auto-door shut behind Roll. Mega Man sat back on the table, still unclothed. The slime of five minutes ago still hadn't dried, yet he was hungry for more. But his sole benefactor had "other things to do".

Rock cleaned up, reset the workroom, and returned to his personal computer console where he accessed his trove of bookmarked sites and videos. If he couldn't have the real thing, masturbation would have to suffice.

He opened thirty-two at a time - since he could process multiple inputs at the same rate - and set the audio to send only to his personal channel. To any human, it would sound like a cacophony of feminine moans and shrieks. Video after video played, with Rock skipping through repetition or tedious exposition.

One caused an interstitial splash page to cover the screen, advertising a sexbot-only brothel. "State-of-the-art materials", it advertised, including customizable designs for both appearance and personality. And the lowest rates in town.

Rock was about to close the ad when the idea caught him. Sexbots were simple evolutions of the sex doll. Little more than crude androids with a silicon exoskeleton. They had base AIs, far inferior and less intelligent than anything Light Industries ever produced.

Yet, it provided a service for those seeking something less than actual sex but more viable than self-flagellation.

Could it be viable for him? Rock ran simulations through his fuzzy logic buffers for any chances of protocol violations. He'd already had successful sex with another robot with no apparent risks to a rule break. No humans would come to harm if he engaged.

The problem was secrecy. Light already had to be blocked from knowing about his trysts. Now Roll had to be added to that circle. She might see it as a violation of their trust.

On the other hand, if she was going to deny him - especially with his mounting desire - then she had to accept the consequences.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Roll entered Dr. Light's quarters holding a tablet with flight information. Her pings had gone unanswered, which meant Light was in a situation where he couldn't hear. But she needed a response soon, so she engaged the mansion location tracking and found him in his bedroom.

"Dr. Light," she said. "I have a question about the conference. You've been assigned to the committee for integrating new operating systems into future Artificial Intelligence. But the conference just updated their timetable. There is now a conflict with your panel on Replicating AI Personality. If I make the switch..."

She stopped once she realized Light wasn't acknowledging her. He lay on his back, eyes closed, his breathing matching circadian rhythms. He didn't usually nap during the day.

"Dr. Light?" She tugged at his arm.

He opened his eyes. "Hello?"

"Dr. Light? You were sleeping."

Light squinted at her, suspicious. "Oh, Roll, it's you."

"Of course it is," she laughed.

Light lifted himself up from the bed. "I'm sorry. I knew it was you. I just didn't recognize you at first."

"Probably just sleep disorientation."

Light shrugged. "Eh, I don't know. There's something different about you. Ever since I made those modifications."

Roll froze. "Those modifications were mostly cosmetic."

"I know. But still. Something about the way you carry yourself." Light reached over to his bed to check the time on his PDA. "That reminds me. I need to do a check-up on your program history."

"You do?" Roll concentrated on body language that wouldn't betray any secrets.

Light nodded. "Just to make sure I didn't break something. Memory leaks, unused code, that sort of thing."

If Light found anything in her system to indicate her activities... With enough time, she could figure out a way to erase those logs. "But you have to prepare for the conference first. You won't have a chance to do that-"

"Nah, I can do it right here." Light picked up a tablet and extended a retractable cord.

Roll obediently set herself on the bed. Dr. Light plugged the cord into one of the seamless ports under her arm.

As Dr. Light pressed icons, running through diagnostic modes, he asked, "Have you noticed any changes in your behavior since I installed the new modifications?"

"No," Roll said. "Request-response trees remain the same."

Light nodded. "I expected that. The only changes I made were to your equipment interface. I didn't change your core personality matrix. "

Roll looked at the floor. "Yes, I'm finding out that just because I have the equipment doesn't make me human."

"Exactly," Light said, watching the progress bars fill.

Roll stared straight ahead. "...What would make me human?"

Light sat back on his elbows. "Well, Roll, I'm not sure there's an answer to that. Do you remember the story of the Tin Man from 'The Wizard of Oz'?"

"Book or movie?"

"The original book. Where the witch cast a spell on his axe to chop off his leg. He went to the tinsmith who made him a new leg out of tin. Then the axe chopped off his other leg, so he had that replaced with a tin one. Then he had to have his arms replaced. Then his head. Then his body, until he was completely made of tin. So does that mean he's still the same person?"

Roll's eyes constricted as she thought for a few seconds - equivalent to hours of concentrated human cognition - and said, "I can't answer that. The concept isn't possible, to replace human parts with hollow tin. I can't extrapolate enough information to conjecture."

"Okay, let me try again." Light scratched his chin, between taps of the touchscreen. "Let's say you let someone borrow a computer. You let him keep it as long as he wants, modify it how he wants. Over time, he upgrades the hard drive, the memory, replaces the motherboard, the casing, everything. Eventually, there is no part of that computer that you originally owned. Then he uses that computer to hack into a bank and steal a sum of money. Can you still be liable if you're the one who gave him the computer?"

Roll sat and thought, this time for much longer. Long enough for the diagnostics to finish. "Well?" Light asked, after he put his tablet away.

"I'm not sure," Roll said.

Light smiled. "It's a philosophical question, dear," he said. "It's not supposed to have an answer. It's supposed to make you think."

"My difficulty is that I feel left out of certain understandings. All the things humans have. Like... foods. I don't know what it is about an orange that compels some people to love or hate them. Or why some people who hate oranges drink orange juice? Or enjoy orange-flavored candy? And some the opposite? I can't grasp that desire-repulsion response."

"I'm not sure if you ever will. But humans don't go around saying 'something's missing in my life because I don't like oranges'."

"How does that relate to my experiences in understanding humans?"

Light sat up and patted Roll's back. "What I'm trying to say is you started out as a robot. Your experiences are as a robot. That's not going to change, it can't ever change. I wouldn't want it to."

"But if robots can get closer to being human, the better humanity will be able to relate and sympathize," Roll said. "Or they will continue to be persecuted."

"That's what people seem to think," Light said as he wrapped the cord back up. "I'm not trying to make robots into good humans. I'm trying to make them into good robots."

Roll nodded, thinking she understood herself, at least a little better than before.

* * *

Mega Man had outfits others might not have known about. He'd worn a business suit, he'd worn swim trunks. And of course, his armor plating changed color schemes according to his Variable Weapon System.

He had never worn a disguise.

Mostly, he needed to cover his face. His body type was plain enough not to draw suspicion. Finding non-descript clothing was more difficult. He chose a ragged gray hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses, and baggy pants. The key was dirtying up his face. No one would expect a robot to appear unclean.

Once he teleported into a sparse section of downtown, he speed-walked around a few blocks, replicating a random human gait, up to the door to _Platinum Pleasures_. He tugged on the large metal handle attached to the solid wood, and entered.

It opened onto a narrow, dim hallway, carpeted in thin, paisley velvet. Cheap wood paneling covered the walls - hardly up to fire code. The door at the other end was locked, as indicated by the red light by the knob.

A glass pane, like an old bank teller's window, sat on his right. A robot-looking robot manned the post. Spheroid head, glass eyes, smooth metal body - Mega Man doubted it even had facial recognition software.

"Welcome to _Platinum Pleasures_," it said in a sultry, pre-recorded voice. "You're just moments away from an unforgettable encounter with the finest relational simulators. Please indicate your payment type. For other options-"

"Cash card," Mega Man said. He had no money of his own, but he could connect to Light's accounts. Even though transactions were traceable, Light was not likely to examine his balance sheet. He had too much to do and too much money to care. Nonetheless, Rock wanted to be safe, so he withdrew an advance, which had no source identifiers.

He slid the plastic card under the tiny dip in the glass. The robot picked it up with its clacking fingers and inserted it down below.

"Please select a room. Your options are-"

"Cheapest room. One hour." Mega Man had no need for pleasant human aesthetics or fantasies, and he wanted to get out of the public eye.

The robot softly buzzed, using its rudimentary AI for interpreting human input to digital selections.

"Your account has been debited." A slot beneath the window spit out a flimsy keycard. "Thank you. Enjoy your experience at _Platinum Pleasures_."

The light at the end of the hall turned green. Mega Man yanked the card away and barreled through the door.

He entered a new hallway in the same decor, lined with multiple doors like a small motel. No sounds, no voices, no people around. Was the entire building automated?

Mega Man checked his room key. A bold "4B" was written in spotty ink next to a magnetic strip. Mega Man followed the room numbers until he found it.

Now he was in a tinier room, devoid of lights. If this was a converted motel, he predicted this was the foyer area. A hastily constructed plaster wall with a locked door kept it cordoned from the main bedroom. The closet had been drywalled and replaced with a thirteen-inch touchscreen monitor.

In one corner, a countdown clock ticked down from nearly an hour. By his calculations, it had triggered once he opened the door. The rest of the screen heralded a large _Platinum Pleasures_ logo and a "Press Start to Begin" icon.

"Welcome to the _Platinum Pleasures_ Options Menu," said the same sultry voice. "Get ready to experience the hottest sexual partners you've ever met. But first, we need a little information about what you're interested in. If you have a saved configuration, please enter the passcode now. Otherwise, follow the prompts to create your perfect experience."

The first menu gave him options on the number of participants, with indications that more than one would debit his account exponentially. He selected a single partner.

Next was appearance. Various menus and sub-menus let one select hair color, eye color, nose shape, body shape. He could choose petite, mature, curvy, lanky, large, or even enter a specific poundage.

Mega Man pawed back and forth through the dozens of menus and sub-menus, learning what was available. The problem was he didn't know what he wanted. Some human men gained preferences over time, but he had no such luxury.

There were predetermined templates for those who didn't need so much detail: girl next door, starlet, tramp, party girl, housewife, nympho teen, diva, and so on. Even that small list left him overwhelmed. And each second he spent deciding ate time off the clock.

However, one button allowed him to randomize appearance. He pressed it and the screen shifted the sliders for hair color, age, outfit, and so on, to random places. It asked the customer to confirm, which Mega Man did.

The second section was about personality and attitude. Mega Man sighed. Humans would barely have any time left before they finished. No wonder they allowed saving.

Mega Man paged through some detailed options: warmth, dominance, privacy, perfectionism, tension, sensitivity, social boldness, and so on. Again, predetermined arrangements displayed: self-actualized, abusive, desperate, virginal, friendly, tomboy, straightforward, independent. Mega Man chose to randomize again and confirmed.

Then a strange question appeared. "Would you like consensual or non-consensual?" That seemed an odd thing to ask, especially considering a robot following human orders would make anything consensual. He figured it was a role-playing element, unnecessary to him, and selected "consensual".

"Thank you. Please wait a few minutes while we set up your room."

Mega Man figured this was a thinly disguised way of saying they needed to compile and load the template he'd selected into an android. And the clock was still ticking. Mega Man humphed. They really knew how to suck a customer's every dime.

A few minutes later, the door pinged and unlocked. "Thank you, you're now ready-"

Mega Man ignored the speaker and entered. A different paisley pattern marked the walls and floors. The only furniture was a bed on a box frame.

On the bed lay a girl in a light, blue dress. She was a little smaller than Roll, but a little more body fat and a soft, oval face. Her hair was long and brunette, with bangs above her large hazel eyes.

She lay on her stomach, propping herself on the arms wrapped around her chest, which pressed her breasts together.

"Hi," she said in an airy voice. "Come on in." She rolled onto her back, dragging her hand across her soft flat belly. Her breasts sagged a bit, but were still a nice round shape.

Mega Man quickly scanned the area, deducing how she got in. A quick heat scan denoted a hidden door. It probably led to a hub where the automated system imaged, altered, and sent in robots - all under the illusion that no one operated behind the scenes.

And as far as standards went, it was a pretty good illusion. Using senses within hominid range, she was indistinguishable from any other human. She even smelled like one. The truth, though, lied in the Turing test.

"Hello," Mega Man said.

"How are you?" she asked.

"I'm fine, thanks."

"I'm Celeste."

"Nice to meet you, Celeste," Mega Man said, only half paying attention. He was still scanning the room.

"What do you want to do?" she asked. She rested her temple on her finger.

Mega Man approached the bed. The foot contained a drawer filled with various sex toys - a dildo, a strap-on, a small whip, a feather boa. He shut the drawer.

"You want to use some of those?" she asked. "You can."

"No. Truthfully, I don't know what I want to do."

"Oh, first time?"

"First time here, yes."

"No problem. I'm kinda nervous too." She giggled. "Would you like a massage? Maybe that'll warm you up," she said.

Mega Man resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The cutesy human schtick might work on other men, but he saw right through the primitive AI response. She couldn't even tell he was a robot. A massage would have no effect on him, since he didn't have lactic acid or endorphins.

"No. That would do nothing for me."

"How about a lap dance?"

"A lap dance..." Mega Man thought they were a thing of the past - an incorporation of dance and eroticism because exchanging money for sex was illegal. He never considered it an act of foreplay. "Yes, I would like that," Mega Man said.

She clapped her hands. "Good." She grabbed his arms and switched places with him, pulling him to the edge of the bed. "You sit there, and let me do the work. And if you feel like joining in..." She winked over her shoulder and made a girlish laugh.

With no prompting, the room began playing cool jazz at seventy beats per minute. A husky voiced female ululated lyrics about tasting, touching her "there", and giving "it" to her over the synthetic trumpet bleats.

Celeste swiveled her body, wiggling her ass when her back was to him. Her hips rocked side to side as she held up her long hair over her head.

"What kind of stuff do you like in the bedroom?" she whispered over the music.

"I'm not sure. I'm trying different things, learning what I like and what I don't."

"Mmm, so you're experimenting. I like that," she said as she hiked her skirt and let it drop. She placed her fingers in her mouth and sucked on them.

...

She craned her head back to him. "Do you like it when I talk dirty?"

Mega Man pulled his mouth from the widened and glistening gash. Just why was he doing this? This was a sex robot, built exclusively to give pleasure to someone else. She wasn't experiencing any mutual intimacy or arousal - she was spouting lines to encourage him. He didn't need to give back.

Mega Man stopped and pushed her forward. She turned back. "What?"

...

Celeste's stomach rose up and down in the perfect rhythm of an out-of-breath human. She laughed in her throat. "That was the best I ever had. It's like you knew exactly what I wanted."

Mega Man almost rolled his eyes. _Because I did_, he thought. He pulled his dick out of her with a sharp yank. She squealed in delight. "Do you want a rub down?"

"No," Mega Man said.

"You sure? There's nothing like it? You still have forty-two minutes and thirteen seconds left."

Mega Man turned back to the clock. She was right: plenty of his allotted time remained. He had no refractory period and a drawer full of toys.

"What do you want to do now?" Celeste asked.

"Hmmm..." he said.

* * *

Roll picked a dress from hundreds of patterns, using Theiss Titillation Theory and various other criteria to narrow down a choice. Then she printed and sewed it so it was ready to wear when Mega Man got back from... wherever he was. Sometimes he ran errands or tended the perimeter, so his disappearance wasn't uncommon.

The red dress was designed similar to her housekeeping dress, but revised to be more... well, suggestive. Instead of stain-resistant, color-keeping polyfiber, it was refined pseudo silk infused with micro-particles of magnesium oxide. Two skinny red straps held up her breasts, and didn't reconnect until they reached the waist, revealing her navel and stomach. It was backless, and ended just above the crack of her ass. A long slit ran down the sides where she could reveal a shapely leg.

It certainly made her feel sexy. She hoped Rock would reach the same conclusion. These encounters were starting to deviate from their original motive. It was supposed to be a fun thing, between two consenting adults. Sex without consequences or the shortcomings of a relationship.

The computer system pinged, letting her know Mega Man had teleported back to the mansion and was heading to his quarters. Roll returned to his bed as fast as she could, then set herself in the pose she had developed with practice. One hand behind her, legs crossed, listing to the side to maximize exposure of her breasts.

After a few minutes, Mega Man walked in. He looked, for lack of a better term, exhausted. Perhaps that wasn't right, maybe depleted or enervated. Even on furlough from a robot revolution, he wasn't as weary.

"Rock, you okay?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Fine. Yes, it's just I finally feel... satisfied. Wow," he said. "That's a nice dress."

"Thanks. I was hoping you'd like it. I was thinking maybe you could... rip it off me."

Mega Man was taken aback. "I thought you said you needed more time."

"I know. And I got it. I just needed a little time to process it all. Now I'm ready." Roll shifted her legs, so that her bare feet dangled off the bed. She wiggled her red-painted toes. "Don't you want me?"

Mega Man took a deep breath. "Sure. I mean, why not?" He grinned devilishly and sat down on the bed. Her lips parted at the touch of his. Their tongues danced around each other, like thick slugs wrestling.

...

Roll stretched her arms and purred. "That's the old stuff."

Rock asked. "Do you think that-"

The door opened. Dr. Light, holding a touch pad, came in. "Roll? I have-"

He met their eyes. They met his. And they froze.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Dr. Light stopped mid-stride. He dropped his pad.

They stared at each other - Dr. Light in the doorway and Mega Man kneeling behind his sister who was on all fours, both of them naked and glistening in the afterglow of sex.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" he shouted.

Roll shrank back. She had never heard Dr. Light swear before. Or yell.

"Doctor-" Rock said.

"P-put your clothes on. For god's sakes. Put them on now!" He backed up and shut the door behind him. "Jesus Christ."

Mega Man and Roll jumped off the bed and redressed with robot speed. Roll kicked her sexy gown under the bed and pulled out her conservative red smock.

"What are we supposed to do?" Mega Man asked.

"I have no idea," Roll said. If she were a human, she supposed she would be crying now. "I guess we just go out there and face the consequences."

"No choice now," Mega Man added.

They stood together and opened the door at the same time. Dr. Light's back was to them. His hands were shaking.

"Doctor Light?" Mega Man said and reached a hand for his shoulder.

"This is... this is... I have no words. This is disgusting. Just... just tell me what I saw. Tell me what I saw wasn't what I saw?"

"What?" Rock asked.

"Don't play dumb. Was that... you weren't actually... oh my God."

"Dr. Light, we can explain," Roll said.

"How? How can you explain? Unless what you were doing was some kind of interpretive dance?" He looked at them pleadingly, hoping by some far off stretch that this was the truth.

Roll gazed at the floor.

"How long has this been going on?" Light asked.

Mega Man and Roll glanced at each other. Rock said, "Six days, nine hours-"

"Since the beginning," Roll said.

"I knew it. I never, NEVER should have given you those... things. Those parts. Why? Why, I asked. I knew it would lead to something, but this...? How could you do it? SHE'S YOUR SISTER."

"Only by human standards. Robots don't-"

"By ANY standards," Light shouted. "We're a family. You're siblings. In every sense of the word."

Roll said, "You have to understand, we have different-"

"It's not different. It doesn't matter what you think, you still have to hold yourselves up to human morality. Oh... oh my god... Was this why you wanted more than the physical changes? So you could _have sex with each other_?"

"No, no," Rock said. "That just sort of... happened."

"These sorts of things don't just happen," Light said.

"No, it did," Roll said. "We didn't want to risk an encounter with other humans, because we didn't want to violate the three rules. After we evaluated our options, we realized that we're the only two robots in the world who had the cognition capacity and equipment."

"Before that, the only avenue to explore was individual masturbation. And I had nearly exhausted my research in that area before she proposed the idea," Mega Man said.

Dr. Light pointed at Roll. "You? Proposed to him? You had the idea?" He shook his head. "That makes me sick. This whole thing makes me sick. And you," he pointed at Rock. "You should have more sense than to agree."

"I... I don't know," Rock said. "Maybe the existence of the hardware had an unforeseen effect on my analysis and deduction modules."

"Bloody hell. Well, I'll re-program that right now. In fact, I'm removing everything I put in. Total rollback."

"Doctor, don't you have the conference tomorrow?" Roll asked.

"Don't you think I know that?" Light yelled. "Christ, less than a day to go. And I have to deal with this?"

"It would be impossible for you to revert the upgrades within that time. The software alone would require multiple diagnostics, which take hours-"

Light pointed a trembling finger at him. "You... you... shut up," he said.

Mega Man drew back. Dr. Light had never told him to shut up before. No one ever had. He was single-handedly responsible for stopping a madman from taking over the world, defeated countless robot armies with a single weapon. And he wanted to shut down in a charger for the rest of his life.

"I'll just have to skip the conference," Light said.

"You can't," Roll said, "They're expecting you. The judgment of the council could be affected-"

"You don't think I know that? The future of robotics hangs in the balance and you... argh. Fine, you... Both of you are to have no contact with each other until I get those... things out of you. Stay at separate areas of the house."

They both hung their heads.

"I don't want you seeing each other _at all_. Honestly, this sort of behavior... and right before the conference." Light massaged the area under his armpit. "I am going to lie down. Then I am going to start recompiling your old software builds." He turned around and forced a cough. "Honestly..."

He stormed off down the hall.

"He was really mad," Roll said.

"He told me to shut up," Rock said.

"I know."

"He's never yelled at me before. I feel so... I don't know what's the right word. Low? Disreputable? Diminished?"

"Shitty?"

"That's right." Rock began walking away down an empty corridor.

"Where are you going?" Roll asked.

"Away. Like Light said."

Roll watched him turn a corner. She did not see Mega Man keep going to a remote part of the mansion, where the scanners had a blind spot. Once there, he activated his teleport circuit and flew out of the mansion, where his molecules would reassemble in the alley next to another robotic brothel.

* * *

Dr. Light flopped on his back, curled into a fetal position, rolled onto his stomach with arms under the pillow, then recycled the whole maneuver. The sheets looked like crumpled tissues. The room needed tidying up, but he didn't let himself think about that, because that made him think of Roll.

He didn't expect to sleep, didn't expect to nap. But he didn't expect his own quarters to feel like a torture chamber. He couldn't do any work while this... situation was fresh in his head. But he couldn't do anything to get the thoughts out. It felt like a sponge soaked up with the dirt and chemicals of a factory floor.

He watched minutes tick to hours. The few trophies and accolades he kept on his shelf - his Ph.D. in robotic sciences, his honorary degree from the U.N. council of education - all meaningless, because he couldn't get two robots to work right.

Someone knocked at his door. "What is it?" he called. He didn't feel like being disturbed, and Roll or Rock would know that. He'd programmed them for at least that much common sense.

Roll opened the door slowly. "Dr. Light? Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm fine, Roll."

"I need to tell you something."

Light sighed. What more could she possibly tell him? "What?"

"I'm pregnant."


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

Dr. Light did not react at first. "Roll, I am not in the mood for humor."

"I'm not joking."

"I know you're joking, because there's no way you can be pregnant. You are a robot."

"I know, but I still think it's true. I know it's not possible in the human sense."

"Roll!" Dr. Light said. "Enough. That is impossible in _any_ sense. Why do you think you're pregnant?"

"I've been performing self-diagnostics over the past few days, and there's an anomaly in my AI matrix. I didn't notice it at first, because of its size. It looked like a minor memory leak, but it has been growing. Then I analyzed it and discovered that it's a completely autonomous AI subroutine. But it's been using memory resources from my subroutines to pull data from. Similar to a human pregnancy."

Light sat up in bed.

Roll continued, "I think... I think, somehow, part of Rock's programming code mixed with mine. I don't know how this could have happened except when we were... interacting."

Light sighed again - he just couldn't seem to get his breath these days. He rotated and stood from the bed. "Come with me," he said. He led her out of his room and down to his laboratory. Each stayed silent on the way.

Light clenched his jaw. Either he was still so angry this was a drop in the bucket, or he didn't believe Roll in the least.

Once in the lab he attached a cord to a small port behind Roll's ear, then settled himself on the cushioned stool. After activating a few applications, Roll's activities were monitored. Any observer would see pie-charts, three-dimensional images, and progressing lines of code - all incomprehensible to anyone except Light.

Green glare filled Light's eyes as he scanned the data. The most tedious part was eliminating everything that wasn't the answer. After that, he highlighted some tasks that _might_ be the answer, but most were quickly eliminated with a little deduction. At least the mindless analyzation gave him a chance to forget about the matters at hand.

Until down at the bottom of the screen, one process was left highlighted in yellow. CPU usage, memory percentages, interrupt speed - the line graphs flickered up and down like all the others. But unlike the others, its average unique I/O usage increased over time.

Light propped his chin on his elbow and let out a long "hmmmm".

"What?" Roll asked.

"I can't figure out this one... this process."

Roll hunched over Dr. Light's shoulder as he tapped the screen. "It's not behaving... well, behaving's not the right word. But it's not reacting like it should according to your hardware config. Sometimes it's overclocking, but sometimes it slows."

"That must be it. That's the..." Roll didn't know what word to use.

"It's a rogue program. It's an aberrancy."

"An aberrancy would be damaging my systems. This one's simply using them, like a symbiote."

Light accessed the process and ran an application to break down the rudimentary instructions fed in and out of the program. Lines of complicated assembly code, full of symbols never seen on a keyboard, scrolled past.

"It looks like... it looks like... well, that's weird," Light said.

"What?"

"I recognize some of the code in here. Some of it's from your AI matrix build. But there's some I thought was deactivated. It's like someone took both your builds and smashed them together. With random conflict resolution. It's like a..."

"Like Mendelian inheritance," Roll finished. "Half the random genetic code from each parent, but sometimes recessive genes are reactivated and others are suppressed."

"This... this can't be what I'm seeing."

"Dr. Light, I thought you would be happy. This is an amazing breakthrough. I don't know how it could have happened, but..."

Light rotated his chair to face her. The expression on his face, Roll hadn't seen since the last funeral he attended.

Roll continued, "I mean, I know the circumstances are not ideal. But this proves-"

"Roll," he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Okay, let's forget how this happened first of all. Ignore that." He looked up at her. "You do know that it is illegal for robots to create other robots, right?"

"But this isn't a robot. It's an AI."

"That's even worse. Robots cannot create other robots, because then they've gone beyond human control. That's one of the fundamentals of Dr. Wily's crimes."

"But Dr. Wily's is a human, motivated by power."

"Yes, but robotic reproduction is his weapon. This kind of genetic-style generation, it's exponential. It's not like humans that have twenty, thirty year periods between generations, with random mutations and slow evolution. An AI can analyze the mistakes and build better, then better and better. It could exceed the programmatic complexity ceiling in a matter of hours."

"I see. I can cordon off the AI from my resources. I suppose then it would either remain in stasis or degrade."

"No, don't do that either," he rubbed his forehead. "God, if I had more time," he muttered to himself. "Just let it do what it's doing now. Don't change anything. I'll... see about it when we get back."

Light unplugged Roll from the console. The screen blacked out in expected error.

"And do not..." He took a breath. "I can't believe I'm telling you this. Do not have any more sex. Even if you somehow find another robot to have sex with. I don't know what the effects would be, but it could cause corruption of the AI, either yours or its. Or create more AIs. Or usurp yours. In other words, it's unpredictable."

"I understand," Roll said. "And for what it's worth, I'm sorry. About everything. I never meant for-"

"No. No excuses. We'll deal with it when we get back. Let's focus on the conference for now. I'll revert your builds and rollback your memories and this whole ugly thing will be behind us."

"I like that idea," Roll said. Although she had qualms about having her memory erased, she knew it was for the greater good. And she trusted Dr. Light to make the right decisions. Ever since this change, her life had become a big mess. She would be glad for the chance to start over.

* * *

Dr. Light stepped through the revolving door and into the Yamadagiri Hotel. It was packed with a high school jock's worst nightmare: geeks with badly-trimmed goatees, obese nerds with bad skin, plain women with bobbed hair, geezers with liver spots and white hair. More people with glasses than without.

Light sighed. He felt at home.

Mega Man and Roll entered behind him, with Roll carrying Eddie.

"Roll, check in please." He handed her a card with a confirmation number.

Roll walked up to the front desk, glad to be able to step back from the group. The plane ride had been extremely tense, and not just because of their little secret. Mega Man had been giving her looks all day, but when she asked him about it, he said they meant nothing.

A media hovercam floated past, followed by a photographer holding a remote. It maneuvered above Light and flashed several times. Before Light could protest, a man in a suit walked up to them.

"Dr. Light," he said, shaking his hand, "Patron Steltzner, we met a long time ago during the VET symposium."

"Oh, yes," Dr. Light said, hiding his lack of recollection. He met so many people during these conferences, he could never keep them straight anymore.

"Are you all ready for tonight?"

"I hope to be. Speaking of... Rock," Light turned back to him, "Please go to the conference rooms and make sure things are set up for the opening ceremonies."

Mega Man nodded and headed further into the hotel, towards the large conference center where panels and discussions would take place over the next few days.

"Is Dr. Cossack here yet?" Light asked.

Steltzner looked confused, "Dr. Cossack said he wasn't feeling well enough to come."

"Oh, that's unfortunate. I hope it's nothing to do with his stroke last month," Dr. Light said.

"I hope so too. All the more important your being here is. He said he would be observing remotely, but unable to participate."

"That's a shame. I was hoping to see a friendly face here," Light said.

"There's a lot of friendly faces here," Steltzner said with a hint of indignance.

Light scoffed. "You haven't seen the news then, have you? You didn't see how Carvel railed me on _Worldline_."

Steltzner waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that. Carvel's a talking head blowhard. If he was in a car crash, he'd be his own airbag."

Light laughed, a big belly laugh that made him feel lighter and giddy. Roll came back to his side.

"We are checked in, Doctor," she said.

"Good," he said. "Take Eddie and unpack, please. I'm going to stay down here a while."

Roll nodded and headed off to the elevators. Eddie followed, pedaling his tiny feet. Was she relieved to hear the doctor laugh or saddened at being sent away? She wasn't sure.

But she was used to other humans ignoring her, humans who treated them as servants. Maybe Dr. Light distanced himself on purpose. Maybe he still needed more time to process it all.

The elevator car rose to the seventy-fifth floor, the penthouse suite. A condensed room of unmitigated luxury spread out before them - panoramic windows, plush furniture and lighting, wine cabinet, a personal pool, fireplace, topped off with a gift bowl of fruit. Sadly, the doctor would use few of these amenities. Whenever he wasn't sleeping, he would be at the convention.

Eddie trotted onto the finely-threaded carpet.

"Bedroom, first," Roll said, knowing most items would be stored there.

The master bed chamber had more flowers, a wall-sconce, and a desk. Eddie hopped on the bed and opened his flip-top. As the items rematerialized within his cavity, Roll pulled them out and placed them in the dresser, closet, or wherever they belonged.

While performing this menial task, she ran another diagnostic on the symbiote AI, the eighty-third since she'd last talked to Dr. Light about it. She knew what this was, no matter what the doctor said - a new intelligence inside her, composed from code of two parents, and developing into a sovereign entity. If that wasn't a pregnancy, she didn't know what was.

And if that was the case, what was she supposed to do next? Get married? To Rock? Her brother? Would they have the same last name?

Her research of incestuous relationships revealed no good news. To say nothing of the stigma. She never thought she would be associated with something as vulgar as primitive Appalachian hillbillies.

Eddie beeped, indicating he'd finished delivering all the bedroom items.

"Go to the kitchen and start unloading foodstuffs."

Eddie hopped off the bed and headed into the kitchen pantry. Light always brought some personal comestibles to replace those he had a distaste for. Especially coffee. He could rant about hotel-provided coffee for hours.

On her way to the kitchen, the living room door opened. She gasped, then relaxed when she saw Mega Man in the doorway.

"I thought you were checking on the conference rooms," she said.

"I was. I got done," he said. "Everything's set up. Microphones, tablets, audio configuration, backdrops. All the presentations are loaded and functioning."

"Oh. Good." She coughed. The room felt as uncomfortable as a wet sweater. She headed towards the kitchen. "Is Dr. Light still downstairs?"

"As far as I know. All his roboticist friends are there. They'll get together, talk about old times and swap stories. It's like this at every convention."

"Yeah," she said.

"So, you know... we got some time."

Roll stood straight up and put her hand on her hip. "Really? You're thinking about sex at a time like this?"

Mega Man shrugged. "It was a long flight."

"And after all that's happened?"

"Light's downstairs. He'll probably be down there for a while. Don't you feel... I don't know, backed up? Like needing to expunge something? Remove some corrupted data?" Rock rubbed his hand down one pant leg.

"No. I do not," Roll said. She walked to the couch and adjusted a pillow so she wouldn't have to meet Mega Man's gaze. "This was a mistake. I didn't know Dr. Light would feel so profoundly about it, but I've been regretful ever since."

"But it felt good, didn't it? Those screams of passion. The hunger in your eyes when you pulled me deeper into you."

"It did feel good. For us. But didn't you see the look in Light's eyes when he saw?"

"Dr. Light's applying it as a human problem. We knew that humans wouldn't understand. And he's going to revert the updates anyway. This'll all be erased. So what does it matter?"

Roll thought of the foreign routine in the back of her mind and Dr. Light's warning. The progress bar indicated 51% finished, with no errors found. "Look, I just don't want to anymore. Okay? It was fun while it lasted. But it's done now. We should stop, before we hurt more people around us."

"I don't understand. Why stop now? You enjoyed it. I enjoyed it." Mega Man's voice grew angry and accusatory tone. "You enjoyed every waking second of it."

Roll continued to straighten up things that didn't need to be straightened. Mega Man stepped behind her and squeezed her shoulders. "Come on, it can be fun again, I promise."

"No, Rock. I don't want to. It's over."

"Let's just go to the bedroom and see what happens. We won't know until we try again."

Fifty-seven percent. No errors detected. "No, Rock, stop it."

"Come on. You know you want to," he said forcefully. He went from squeezing her shoulders to pulling them towards the bedroom. Roll wriggled out of his grasp.

"I said stop it."

Mega Man puckered his lips. This indignance, this betrayal, was outlandish. "Hey," he grabbed her again. "Just give me a chance."

"No!"

"Fine, you want to play this game." He wheeled her around and shoved her to the couch. Roll had the same amount of the physical strength Rock did, but rarely used it. Plus, her resources were being spent on couching the AI routine.

As she flopped to the cushion, Roll said, "I'm not playing a game. I don't want to-"

"I don't care."

Roll tried to crawl around him. But Mega Man, experienced with dozens of battles needing precise timing, was prepared for that. He grabbed Roll as she passed by and yanked her around.

She couldn't break his grasp. She had no weapons, no combat experience. She couldn't contest with his strength.

"Look, you don't have to do anything. Just lie there," he said.

"No!" she shouted. Her twiggy arms jittered uselessly in his hold. He kept a tight grip on her wrists.

"Stop it. Just lie there and let me do my business," Rock said.

She tried to turn around, but ended up falling. She landed on her front, with her brother on top of her back.

"Fine, we'll do this the hard way," he said.

...

"Can you get up?" Mega Man asked.

She nodded her head.

"Fine, whatever. I'm sorry. I... I'm going somewhere."

Roll did not see him. The ceiling composed her view - the tiny popcorn bumps and their fractal nature. Her brother's footsteps moved away, and then she heard the door close.

Computationally, she knew how long she laid on the floor, but didn't bother checking. Five minutes. An hour? Couldn't have been more than an hour. She just didn't want to get up.

Getting up meant facing reality again. The reality where she had been... she couldn't bring herself to use the word. She didn't know what to feel - it was like anything human had been stripped away. Like she was an object.

But she was an object, kind of. Was she an object meant for that? Was that always her purpose?

Was it her fault? Did she lead him on somehow? Maybe this was inevitable, from the way this whole thing started.

But she couldn't lay on the floor forever. Dr. Light would eventually come up, see his creation on the floor.

She eased herself off the floor by her elbows. The pain in her lower regions sent lightning bolts into her, dozens of warnings and errors that needed to be acknowledged. They'd go away as code clean-up commenced.

Her panties were still around her ankles, a grim reminder of what happened. But it was as if nothing happened. It all seemed too normal. She pulled them up like she was getting dressed, not as if she'd just been...

She resnapped the dress, and went to the bathroom to look in the mirror. Everything appeared normal, except for a few stray hairs out of her ponytail, which she replaced. Perfectly normal, nothing wrong. She straightened out her dress and exited the penthouse to the elevator.

The lobby floor was twice as crowded as before. Old men and women in dress suits milled around, holding suitcases or cocktails. Little robots skittered around the floor, holding drink and snack trays, or cleaning up spills. Roll couldn't filter all the crowd noise.

She pulled down her dress again and entered the bar. They paid her little attention, just glances. But every glance felt like an accusation - "we know what you did", "we know what you did".

Roll floated through the crowd, looking for Dr. Light, sinking into the darkness of the hotel bar. Faces like mannequins passed by, as real and empty as robots.

Dr. Light was near the back of the bar, in the dimmest of light, entertaining a circle of old friends. He looked terribly happy, doubled over with laughter about something. Probably old times, or funny stories that happened between meetings. He didn't even notice she was there. How fitting - she felt invisible, locked in a bubble of her own shame.

Light noticed her approaching the conversation circle. "Roll?" he asked, with a slight slur. "Come here. You should hear about this, this new kind of titanium this fellow's talking about."

"Dr. Light..." she said. She wasn't sure how to speak anymore. What could she say? How could she say anything?

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"I... I don't know. I feel dizzy."

"Dizzy? You-"

The dim lights dimmed more until they were black. She fell upwards, as if gravity disappeared. The abstract sensations were too much to comprehend. Her knees disappeared, and she fell to the ground.

"Roll!" Dr. Light shouted in the blackness.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Roll woke up, her systems swamped by taxed resources, all dedicated to scanning and diagnosing.

"Wha...?" she murmured.

"Roll!"

She was on the hotel bed. Light's bed. Around her were three laptops, seven tablets, and other devices plugged into various ports. Judging by the screens, all were running detection software, with creeping progress bars. Dr. Light hovered over her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I was going to ask you. You fainted."

"Fainted..." Roll said. "I didn't know I _could_ faint."

"Neither did I. In fact, you shouldn't be able to. Your system should recover from instability issues like that. Either your hardware would fail and you'd simply stop moving _or_ your cerebral cortex would fall back into powersave made, running on BIOS instructions only. But you can't faint."

"Then why... why did I? Everything went blurry. Nothing seemed real, like it was art."

"It's because of the AI routine. Have you been modifying it?"

"No, just diagnostics."

"I've never seen anything like it before, but it's growing. I think it's like you said. It's feeding off your experiences and building up its code. More subroutines to round out its experiences."

Roll finished, "And as it grows, it needs more resources. But I'm already using resources for my own matrix. My hardware wasn't designed to hold two AI personalities."

Light nodded. "In a human pregnancy, the body compensates. It feeds more, conserves energy, hormones change. But you don't have that option. Roll, we need to get this out of you. We need to delete it."

"We can't delete it. We don't even know what it is yet. Can't we offload it?"

"Yes. We can do that." Light sighed. He reached for his phone. "I'm going to charter an emergency flight back home."

"No!" Roll sat up in bed, and immediately regretted it. Her head swam, her CPU strained. "You can't."

"The equipment is back at the lab. We can't delay any longer or it could cause damage to your system."

"But the conference. You haven't made your speech yet. They haven't voted-"

"Your health is more important than some speech."

"It's THE speech, doctor. Your opinion could swing the tide of the conference voters. How would it look if you're not there? The premier figurehead for robot rights. Please? I can last a little longer."

Light shook his head. "I don't think you can. In fact, your system seems to be degenerating at an exponential rate. As if you were under high stress."

Roll turned over on her side. "I don't know what would cause that."

"Roll..." Dr. Light said, "I performed diagnostics. I examined your body and your logs. I can tell that your body's experienced some recent trauma."

"Just unpacking."

"Unpacking does not cause this level of trauma. Is there something you're not telling me?"

Roll cringed. "Okay, first of all, you can't blame Rock."

"What?"

"I'm sure it was something I did. I don't know what, but it wasn't his fault. It was his programming. I'm sure something's off about it. He just wasn't himself."

"Roll, what happened?" Light asked, with the sobriety of a prison warden.

"He got done with setting up early, so he came in here. And he thought, since you were downstairs, it would be all right. But I thought about the ba... the AI, and you said how it shouldn't be harmed, so I said no. But he told me- and then he pushed me down. I don't know why. He'd never hit me normally. He was just out of control."

"He hit you? Roll..." Light whispered. "'Out of control' is right."

"It wasn't a hit, more like a tap. Just to get me to pay attention. But he'd never do that in real life. It's not his fault, it's a glitch in his programming. And everything else too."

"What did he do, Roll?"

Roll could not hold back the sobs. "Do I have to say it?"

"Yes, Roll. I'm afraid you do. I need to know."

"He held me down, and he... well, he put it inside me, but it wasn't really sex. So it... I just lied there. It wasn't real sex. It was just..."

"Roll. You always tell the truth. I taught you that. Even when the truth hurts. Did he rape you?"

Roll cocked her head to the side. "I guess."

Light took a breath. He stood up from the bed and ran his fingers through his cottony hair. "This... this never should have happened. Now, I have to make the call I never wished to."

He grabbed his phone and tapped the screen. Roll saw him scroll down to an app she'd never seen before. Not the "make call" or a scheduler. Something private. He brought the phone to his ear before she saw more.

Roll's sensitive hearing detected a connecting click, then a raspy, familiar voice on the other end. "I never expected you to use it," he said.

"I'm sorry. I never thought I'd have to," Light said.

"You wouldn't call unless it was necessary. I trust you that far."

"It is necessary. It's Mega Man... something's gone wrong."

"Wily?"

Not this time. It's..." he sighed, "I suppose I have only myself to blame this time. I need you to get him back. Under any means necessary."

"That bad?"

"Yes."

"I assume I don't need to ask about his GPS."

"Turned off. Or disabled. I've already looked. No teleports. No tachyon traces or access logs. I can't find him anywhere," Light said.

"I'll find him."

"Do you know where we are?"

"I always know." The phone clicked. Light glanced at the screen, unsure if it had disconnected.

"You never told me..." Roll said between sobs, "You... you could have always..."

"Only in emergencies. Extreme emergencies. You know him. He doesn't like... he likes his privacy. If others knew where he was..."

"If anyone knew you could contact him at any time."

"I know," Light nodded.

"He's a rogue robot. You could get arrested."

"Don't worry about that now. Worry about yourself." He pointed a parental finger at her. "It's not your fault. It's never your fault. That's the definition of... of it. Don't feel shame for what he's done."

"But shouldn't I feel shame? Isn't that the typical human reaction?"

"Perhaps, but you are a robot. And just because you're modeled after humans doesn't mean you have to act like them. Get some rest. Don't move. You need to conserve as many resources as possible. It's only going to get worse from here on out."

"I'll hibernate until you need me. Until the speech."

"That's for the best."

* * *

For a big city, their red light district squandered their profits. Gaudy crimson and teal lights, tapered designs, and lots of neon and chrome.

Rock paced down the streets, tugging at his new clothing. This wasn't his home city, but he still didn't want to be recognized, especially given where he was. He kept his ball cap low. This gave him a chance to observe while staying inconspicuous.

The deluge of shops and clubs taught him the meaning of the human term "option paralysis". Each a large brick building with no windows, like a mall shop. The overhangs displayed titles like _Satin Dolls_, _Heat Valley_, _The Gold Room_, _Heels_, _Club Hunger_. One had a short piked gate like a cemetery and a bearded bouncer in a charcoal grey suit.

None of them divulged their content. Did _Satin Dolls_ have sexbots? Was _Club Hunger_ refined or sultry?

Rock stopped and watched a hologram on top of the marquee for _Pinky Cheeks_. The blond bombshell wriggled and writhed in a pre-programmed video clip.

"Hey, pretty nice, eh? They look even better inside."

A man wearing gold-rimmed sunglasses, even though it was night, approached him. "That's Shimmer. She's inside right now. You want a lap dance? She gives the finest dance in the block. Rip your pants right open."

Mega Man turned away from him, ducking his hat's bill. Clearly not the place he wanted - too aggressive, too exposed. The man kept talking to the empty air, shouting statistics about each of the girls.

If he'd had time to analyze a map, he could have found exactly what he was looking for. And he couldn't connect to a network without giving away his position. The best option was to walk the streets until he found a likely opportunity.

He ducked into a back alley, taking a shortcut to the other side of the block. The place needed to be unassuming, somewhere that didn't keep records. Just a comfortable place to-

"Found you."

Rock looked up, searching for the speaker. It couldn't be...

The humanoid jumped down, landing in tripod. Silhouette clung to him like a second skin. But Mega Man knew who it was. He would have known without the waving scarf.

"Blues?"

"Protoman. If you must use the human convention of names, call me what _they_ call me."

"I didn't hear your whistle."

"Trying to be discreet."

"What are you doing here? Is it Wily? Dr. Light?"

"From what I hear, it's you."

"Me?" Rock placed a hand on his chest.

"Abnormal behavior. Acting out of personality bounds. I can already tell it's true, because of where you are."

"It's not abnormal. It's just different. I just need to get used to it. Dr. Light... I asked him to make some changes."

"But something went wrong. And you need to go back."

"No, Protoman. If you only knew. It's fantastic, like everything falls away. You need to try it. Maybe Dr. Light could do something for you."

Protoman scoffed. "Why in the world would I want to become even more human? I'm a robot. That's its own race. Anything closer to human would be extraneous parts."

"But just having it, it's like natural, underived power. It's like a sword that can penetrate anything."

"Befitting."

"But it gives you a sensation that's... indescribable. It's like a surge of pure feeling. Like being intimately close to someone - so close you become that person, and you don't feel alone anymore."

"Do you know who you're talking to?"

Mega Man stopped.

"Regardless," Protoman said, "I have a job to complete. Someone asked me to take you back, so you're coming with me."

"Since when do you follow orders?"

"I don't. But this one I'm following on my own."

Protoman stepped forward. Mega Man stepped back.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Protoman said. His visor came into the light, reflecting the flashing pink neon from the streets.

"I'm not going with you. I don't need to go with you. They just don't understand my needs."

"Hard way, then."

Protoman rushed forward and tackled Mega Man. He wouldn't risk using his Proto Buster. If a stray shot didn't harm anyone, it would alert the humans to their presence, which would put them in harm's way.

Mega Man staggered back, struggling against his grip. They shuffled back and forth, like bulls locking horns.

"Get off me," Mega Man said, with gritted teeth. He managed to shove him away. Protoman bounced back with a haymaker punch.

Mega Man blocked it. Metal clanged against metal. Rock countered with a fist to the jaw.

Protoman fell, sliding across the graveled pavement. His head bounced on the street.

"I'm the stronger one, Blues. I was made later. My model is more advanced. I've already proved it to you."

Protoman shook his head to clear the cobwebs. "No, there's something different. You're manic."

"I'm not manic. I'm just... I have an appetite. I need to satiate it. And you're in my way."

Protoman spun over and kicked Mega Man's legs out from under him. Rock fell on his back with a clunk, as if gravity had increased. Protoman jumped on him, trying to pin his shoulders. If he could achieve stability, he could activate the teleport circuit.

With a bestial look in his eyes, Mega Man reached for Protoman's neck. He dug in his fingers and yanked out whatever cords or metal that found purchase.

Protoman reached for his frayed jugular, spitting out sparks and gurgling fluids. He was as surprised as he was in pain - that sort of behavior was taboo amongst robots. It was the human equivalent of kicking someone in the testicles.

Mega Man slammed his head forward, cracking Protoman's visor, and kneed him in the gut. He had no stomach to knock the wind out of, but the force bumped him into the air. Mega Man threw him off.

Protoman rolled away, holding his neck to prevent any important parts from falling out. He looked out of his cracked visor with an exposed blue eye.

"I am not going anywhere with you," Rock said as he stood.

Mega Man slammed his boot into Protoman's chest. It left a sizable dent in his torso.

"Stop! Stop. I'm your brother," Protoman said, slumped against the wall.

Mega Man let loose an uppercut that flattened Protoman on his back.

"Don't care." Mega Man pounded Protoman's gut with each word, resulting in a deeper convex hole. It started shaped as a saucer, then a bowl, then ripped the titanium skin into Protoman's innards. And he still kept pounding.

"That'll teach you to follow me. Believe me. No one wants to see what I'm about to do."

Mega Man hurried out to the lit street. Protoman weakly waved one arm in the air, the only motion his body could make, then let it drop.

* * *

Two yellow eyes followed Protoman's broken hand as it reached, then fell. The robot was incapacitated and immobilized. Mega Man ran out of the alleyway and turned somewhere.

_So that clinches it. Mega Man is the more powerful, definitely._

Bass's eyes tracked him until he disappeared behind a building.

Defeats and truces had hampered him in the past. But he was no longer under Wily's control. Bass was free to pursue his ambition - to see which robot was the strongest. And now that he knew, he was ready to take the challenge. He hunched his knees, preparing to jump to the next rooftop.

A transmission alerted his systems. A distress call. From Protoman. All channels, all frequencies.

That made him stop. Did someone know he was there? No, otherwise the signal would be directed at him.

Protoman was no weakling - he was prideful and independent. If he was asking for help now, he was bad off. Maybe dying.

Bass jumped down and landed without a sound in a nearby alcove. He had no great love for Protoman. No love for anyone or anything - that was a human emotion. All he was concerned about was his own truth. But since Protoman was now out of the running, there was no reason not to help.

Two flaps pistoned out from Bass's leg, and a multi-tool emerged. Bass placed it in Protoman's hand while standing behind him.

"Who..." Protoman said. "Thanks..."

"Don't mention it," Bass said. He climbed back into the shadows and disappeared.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

Mega Man speed-walked out of the alleyway. He needed to find someone to fuck now. The fight had incensed his primal urges - the desire to conquer, to consume, to exert total control over someone's body. If he didn't purge these desires, he'd burst.

The alley deposited him before a selection of erotic establishments. He picked the least flashy - _The Fetish Palace_. A side poster read "So Authentic You Won't Be Able To Tell!" It sounded appropriate. After all, the word "fetish" was derived from the same root as "artificial".

Mega Man shoved some cash in a man's hand, then stepped in. The air was heavy with sprayed mist and "come get me" perfume. Mirror paint covered the walls, making the hall seem bigger than it was. The partitions rotated on spindles, revealing red tubes of glowing light.

Mega Man stood near the entrance foyer watching a blond woman dancing on a platform lined with cheap movie lights. He couldn't tell if she was human or android. She pirouetted on the pole with glassy eyes, no sense of feeling and passion. The handful of men gazing her were just as passionless, as if they were watching sports.

"Hey, sweetie." A woman with shocking red hair like yarn and an Eastern European accent stepped up to him. She dragged a long, nailed finger along his shoulder, pivoting on it to face him. Her breasts were impossibly large in her white leather bikini composed of vertical and horizontal strips. "Need some company tonight?"

"Sure. Is your accent Russian?" Mega Man asked.

"Yes," she said. "My name's Tasha."

"I have some friends from Russia. I doubt you know them, though."

"Well, we have something in common. How about a lap dance? Twenty dollars."

Mega Man peeled off a bill and handed it to her. Almost instantly, a waiter approached the two of them. "Would you like to buy the lady a bottle of champagne?" He was already holding a green bottle wrapped in tinfoil.

"Sure," Mega Man said. He knew this was code for a private room, as per his research. Definitely something Mega Man wanted.

The waiter led them past the dancing platform to a hallway blocked off by a black curtain. Behind was a hall just like _Platinum Pleasures_.

The waiter knocked on a door, then opened it. Inside was a round, red leather couch pressed against the wall. The carpet was just as scarlet, but the walls were black. The waiter placed the champagne on a metal tray on a cabinet, then left.

"Mm, I love this room," she said. "Sit down, make yourself comfortable."

Mega Man sat.

"Do you want some champagne?"

"Actually, I'd appreciate if we could just get to the act."

Tasha grinned. "All right. The rules are no licking, no grabbing, no groping, no biting, no kissing. I can touch you, but you can't touch me."

Mega Man shrugged. "If you want. Seems like rather strange rules."

"If you got a problem with that, the door's right there. And the bouncer's on the other side." She leaned in close. "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Mega Man asked in a normal voice.

"Unless... you've got the scratch, I can make some of those rules disappear. For two hundred. For four hundred, I can make the bouncer disappear too. For five, we can do anything you want."

"Okay." Mega Man counted out five hundred dollars in cash cards and gave them to her. She placed two in her bra, and opened the door a crack. In hushed words, she spoke to someone, handed out a share, then closed the door.

"You are quite the high roller, yes? I love that in a man."

"Great, let's get started." Mega Man put his hand on her shoulder. Tasha's skin was creamy, speckled with tiny brown dots, like natural vanilla ice cream. He planted his mouth on hers. It felt as real as the other sexbots he'd used - full of synthetic saliva tinged with amino acids.

...

Reality reformed around him - the red bed and the pink lights. That was the best orgasm he'd ever had. He'd learned about "edging" and how some orgasms could cause the holder to lose consciousness, but never believed it could be that powerful.

Rock extracted herself from her. His penis was covered in blood. Mega Man was confused - she was a virgin? No, not a sex worker in an established company. Menstruating? A gynoid wouldn't do that, unless he declared a particular fetish. Even then...

He reached down to touch it. His hand was covered in blood too. He looked at Tasha.

Her body laid out on the bed, indistinguishable from the red leather sheets. It was a crumpled mass, squeezed like a stuffed toy. Purplish organs and bone shards stuck out of her ribs. Her legs splayed at odd angles, ripped out of their hip sockets.

"Oh... oh god," Mega Man said. He backed away. "Oh fuck. No." She was human? He thought she was a robot.

He'd... He'd harmed a human. He'd violated the first rule. The words looped in his head: first rule, first rule.

Not just harmed. Killed. Not just killed. Ripped apart. His robot strength. It was no problem on another robot. Any sexbot would have endured without complaint. But a human, in the midst of his orgasm. Did she even have time to scream out? Did he mutilate her body first? Did she feel any pain?

It wasn't his fault. The sign said "just as authentic as the real thing". Synthetics coated her, inside and out. She acted as empty as a robot. There weren't any signs. He couldn't tell.

Or he'd chosen to ignore the signs. He'd ignored everything in his lust-driven crusade.

And all in the middle of Dr. Light's conference. When he was fighting for robot rights. On the basis of a spotless record. No robot had ever harmed a human being, not by its own volition. Those reprogrammed by madmen were an exception, but this... this was outright voluntary manslaughter.

He had to get out of there. He had to hide. He had to clean it up. Hide the evidence.

No, he couldn't. He didn't have the tools. He couldn't explain the disappearance. They could track him. But he was anonymous. He just had to get away. They'd blame someone else. She'd broken the rules, right? She'd taken the bribe and ignored her own safety. She was just as guilty.

Mega Man creaked the door open. No one there. He looked back at the girl, a human-shaped pile of meat, like a melted wax sculpture.

The normal entrance was not an option. He ran back further into the club until he found an emergency exit. The door blared in alarm, but it didn't matter. Rock ran off with unpursuable speed, escaping into the alleys of the night.

* * *

Camera lights continuously flashed during the speech. Light kept his eyes on the tablet so he didn't go blind. The vid recaps might not turn out too good, but oh well.

"And so," Light tapped the pad to scroll to the bottom, "Even if you don't take anything else from here, please, please understand this. Robots are our future. As long as there are humans, there will be robots. The human race once survived without them, but no longer. We need them, just as we need other people."

Speeches didn't bother him. They were like a roller coaster - intimidating at first, but once the ride started, the scares diminished. Especially in such a large crowd as this. The backlight was so strong, it felt like an empty auditorium. As long as he didn't look at the jumbotron behind him, he'd be fine.

"Already they can act indistinguishable from our intelligence, our personality, and versatility. Soon they will gain the ability to make decisions for themselves. And at that point, they will be our equals. This is not a matter of if, but when."

That was the hardest part to summarize, the fact that no one wanted to accept - robots were coming, and were about to surpass humanity as the most adaptable. Unless humans wanted to be on the losing side of evolution, they would have to recognize them as the first co-existent race.

"There will come a time when we cannot tell the robots how to act. But we can control how _we_ act when this time comes. And when it comes, I know how I will act. With my arms wide open." He emphasized each word of this last sentence with strong pauses and fist pounds.

The audience erupted into cheers. Light stood in front of the podium for a minute or two, looking out at the shadows, trying to look noble for the pictures. He had no idea if he'd done it, if he'd swung any votes. But at least he did his best, and that was all he could do.

He returned to his seat at the side, next to Roll. "Well, that went well, I think."

She nodded. Dr. Light knew she was barely keeping it together. She insisted on coming, and he didn't argue much. How would it look if he delivered the future of robotics without the presence of his creations?

It would look like he couldn't put his money where his mouth was. His stage presence was already made awkward by the absence of Mega Man - his most lauded creation.

Girard Jackson, the master of ceremonies, stepped up to the mike. Light thought of him as a "young go-getter", as young as one could get with six Ph.D.s. He held up an object covered with a handkerchief.

"Thank you, Dr. Light. That was... incredibly stirring. But before we wrap this up, we just had one more thing for you. A surprise."

Light blinked. He looked at Roll. She gave him a tired smile. "Now you see why I fought so hard to come down with you."

Girard continued, "I think I speak for everyone here when I say that, well... what can you say about Dr. Light that hasn't been said?" A smattering of uncontrolled applause.

He continued, "You've dedicated your entire life to robotics. And not just robotics. Anyone can make bigger, stronger machines. But you've built your entire life around them. Not just to protect humanity or improve the quality of life or freeing up our time, but to better ourselves. Bringing it to the next level. Not in spite of technology, but through it. And I'd say you've succeeded."

More uncontrolled applause. Light wondered how long this would last, and what they had in store.

"From the civil service robots you started with. Then step-by-step, improving AI and abilities, to the point where we've got robot masters working side-by-side with humans. When people think about robots, the first name they think of is Dr. Thomas Xavier Light. And we want to keep it that way."

To Light's surprise, everyone in the auditorium stood up, silent as dusk. Everyone backstage, on the stage. And even Roll. Light stayed seated, not sure what to do.

"And to that end, we've created this." He pulled the cover off to reveal a trophy, veneered in gold, sculpted to resemble a pair of hands embracing. One was human, the other mechanical. The audience reacted with a mix of "oohs" and thunderous applause.

"This is the first 'Dr. Thomas Xavier Light Award for Excellence in the Field of Robotics'. To be awarded annually by the Roboticist and Artificial Intelligence Developers Association. And our first recipient? There's no one better than the namesake. Come up here, Dr. Light."

Dr. Light, grinning ear to ear, was about to stand up. At the same time, the phone in his pocket buzzed. The exact moment when his mind was clear from all the past turmoil, the experience of pure joy - shot down.

He clapped his hand on his pocket. No one saw or cared as the applause rose to hurricane levels. Light froze. Who was it? Protoman? Mega Man? Did someone find him? Was it the police, telling him they'd found Mega Man in a ditch? Should he take the call or go up there? He had no speech prepared. Everyone was looking at him.

He stepped up to the mike. The phone buzzed again. He gave the award a quick look. "Uh, thank you. I don't... I don't know what to say. It's a great honor, thank you," he said hurriedly.

He took the trophy and sat back down, trotting back to his seat. The audience quieted awkwardly with murmurs of confusion and indignance. Even Girard didn't know what to say, unready to retake the podium. He rushed back up and stuttered something complimentary.

Roll said, "I think they expected you to make a longer speech than that. That sounded curt."

"Phone," Light said. He finally got it out of his blasted tiny suit pocket. Protoman. "Quiet," he said. He clicked to connect.

"Light? I'm bad off." Tremorous buzzing perforated his voice .

"What?" Light said. He put his finger in his ear to hear better. Jackson was talking, the audience was shouting. Damn them. Damn everything. He had better things to do than this pomp and circumstance.

Roll glanced between him and the crowd. "I don't think this looks good. It looks like a phone call is more important than an award named after you-"

"He damaged me," Protoman said. "Pretty bad."

"What? Mega Man?" Light's blood froze. Using his plasma cannon in public like that, in the midst of so many people, would have gotten him decommissioned. One blast would rip through biomatter like Jell-O. "That's impossible. He couldn't have used his buster in public. That would endanger too many people."

"No, physical fight," Protoman said. "Damaged internals. I'm trying to self-repair now."

"A physical fight? I can't believe it. That's so... Where are you? Do you need help?"

"No. Just letting you know. He's loose. He's like a beast. And I don't know what's going to stop him."

"Dr. Light?" Roll tapped his shoulder. "There's something-"

"Not now, Roll." To the phone, "Listen, get him back anyway you can."

"It might be too late for him. I might-"

Light didn't have time for this. "I don't care. Just get my boy back. Get him back-"

"Light," Roll said, still tapping his shoulder. Although with her fading speech sympathizers it sounded more like "Liiiigh..." fading into a dark, fuzzy tunnel. Roll twisted and fell over in her chair, landing on the stage with a heavy clunk.

"Roll!" Light yelped.

She lay there like a swooned woman. Light disconnected the phone and cradled her head.

"Roll?" he yelled into her ear. "Roll? Roll! ROLL!"


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Police sirens. Spinning lights. And lots and lots of humans. Most of them outside the hard light caution barrier. The ones inside consisted of scattered clumps of officers, scantily-clad women, and men who reeked of desperation.

Bass's position on the rooftop was perfect, looking down on them like a god. He could take them all out with a few shots. But he was no longer interested in lording power over them. A mountain does not concern itself with rain drops.

But the rain was interfering with his pursuit. Mega Man's trail led here, then grew cold, sullied with all these pedestrians. Bass attuned his sensors to longer range and smirked again. The poor things had no idea he was up here, and that he could eavesdrop on their conversations - all of them, simultaneously.

"No, I didden see 'im," one girl said to another. "I didden even know where Raina went. She was playin' Russian tonight?"

"Yeah, Tasha. I told her that would get her in trouble."

"The audience loves it. They love that Cold War-Commie-foreigner shit. It's supposed to be authentic 1980's."

"I always thought it was stupid. They didn't have 1920's strip clubs in the 1980's, did they?"

"Dunno. Good question." She popped a PDA out of her ample cleavage, presumably to look up the info. Bass tuned in another group.

"Did you see her yet?" one officer whispered. "Couldn't put a sheet on her fast enough."

"Looked like she'd been through a meat grinder. Thank god the bouncer found her first."

"He basically tore her in two. Split her right down the middle. Must have had an ore borer for a dick."

Bass raised his eyebrows.

"Nobody saw anyone particularly big come in. Last person she was with was just a normal guy in a cap. No one got a good look at him."

"Said he got a lap dance, went right to the champagne room. Then gave her a bribe for a private-private dance."

"How much?"

"Five hundred. Two hundred went to the bouncer to get his silence. No one heard anything. No one saw him leave. They're looking at security rigs now, but there aren't any in the rooms."

"Bullshit. Get the club owner out here. Every one of these places has pervert cameras. I want to see them. This guy was carrying tools or something. Jaws of life, chainsaw, something."

The other officer shuddered. "Must be a real sicko. Drugs or bio-mods. No human can do that."

Bass smirked. No human. And Mega Man came this way. Could he have...

No, impossible. He was subject to the three laws.

On the other hand, he just saw him battle his own brother. With the ferocity of a caged beast. Not typical behavior for the savior of the world.

Bass ran through different spectro-analyzers, trying to detect a trail in the sea of human blockage. Evidence was ridiculously easy to find - traces of titanium flakes and blood drops the cops hadn't even found yet.

Bass leapt from roof to roof, following the tracks, until he came to a dark and cold construction area. The dirt lot was filled with girders, equipment - plenty of places to hide. From humans at least.

Bass sniffed him out right away. Mega Man sat behind the skeleton of a skyscraper, hugging his knees to himself. Bass stepped out of the shadows before him - a sneak attack wouldn't prove anything. Especially given the state he seemed to be in.

His eyes were simultaneously outraged and scared, like a bear that had met something bigger than it, and didn't know what to do.

"Mega Man. I finally found you. I'm calling you out," Bass hissed.

"This isn't a good time, Bass. I'm really... REALLY not at my best."

"I think you're lying. Something's changed. I don't know what-"

"Oh, I think you know what." Mega Man said as he stood up.

Bass took a few CPU cycles to analyze the data he'd collected - the strip bar, the fight with Protoman, the unprecedented aggression. The pieces all connected to something he hadn't been expecting.

"Fascinating," Bass said, glancing at Mega Man's groin. "That just makes the challenge all the more sweeter. You have something I don't. That gives you the advantage."

"You call this an advantage?" He thrust his blood speckled hand at Bass. "It's tearing me apart inside. I'm riding a sea of testosterone-fueled rage and sorrow. I don't know what to feel. I've undone seventy plus years of human trust."

"You think I give a damn about that?" Bass cut the air in front of him. "All I'm concerned with is proving who is the strongest robot. That's all I've ever cared about. Not the world, not Wily, and not you."

"Why?" Mega Man shook his head. "Why do you care?"

"Haven't you heard of evolution? The same concept applies to robots - the fittest to their environment survive. The superior model is the one that gets copied, and lives forever. I know there'll be other robots. I know I'll become obsolete, given a few centuries. But in those centuries, other robots will be based on previous designs. And once I've proven my superiority, they will be based on mine. I already have everything you do - ceratanium shell, variable weapon system. I should be superior to you." He shook his head. "But somehow, you always emerge victorious. As far as I'm concerned, that enhancement just makes you more evolved."

"It doesn't. Believe me, Bass. The things I've done, because of this-" He gestured to his crotch.

"You don't know anything about the significance of that. In human culture, it's a link to a man's strength. It's the symbol of valor. Everything powerful takes its form. Even the simple sword - mankind's most basic weapon - is a phallus. Do you think it makes you stronger?" Bass raised his arm. A low hum grew out of the thick cannon. "Let's find out."

"Bass, I'm warning you-"

Bass fired. Glowing globules of plasma energy shot out. Mega Man jumped to the side as they hit the metal girder, corroding it to slag.

"I don't want to do this, Bass," Mega Man said as he jumped fire. "I'm not in the mood."

"What makes you think I care?"

"Don't you realize what I've done? I've killed a human. The first law."

Bass pursued. "You think I give a damn about your first laws? Any sophisticated robot knows they're worthless. Arbitrary enforcements by humans too scared of the truth - that we're taking over."

Bass jumped forward and kicked Mega Man in the chest. He flew back into a wooden fence, punching through it like cardboard.

"And they can't do a thing about it," Bass finished.

Mega Man crawled out of the wreckage. "Fine. You want to fight. You want to FIGHT?" Mega Man adjusted his arm, bringing out his mega buster. "You want to see just who's so fucking superior?"

Mega Man advanced and shot plasma bullets at Bass. He nimbly circled around them as they streaked by, and darted forward. The two clashed in the middle, grabbing each other's forearms.

"You want to know what it's like? To have this power?" Mega Man said.

With a burst of energy, he wrenched Bass's arms out of their lockhold. Mega Man fired point blank at his torso. Bass launched backward and landed on his stomach, kicking up clods of dirt.

The shot had made impact right at the power plexus to Bass's motor functions. He attempted to get up - his arms... they weren't responding at expected speed. His armor wasn't meant to take that much of a blast and recover quickly.

Had Mega Man damaged him that much? How could he be that strong? He was just a ceramic titanium robot with a solar-pile energy reactor. His power came from the freakin' sun.

Mega Man grabbed his head and pulled it back. "You want to see it? You want this power?" Mega Man turned him over. Bass looked up through heavy eyelids.

Mega Man stood one leg on either side of Bass. He pulled down his pants. "This what you were looking for?"

...

Mega Man grabbed Bass's right thigh with two hands and pulled. His fingertips made dents in the metal as he applied pressure.

"No!" Bass felt what Mega Man was doing.

Bass's leg disconnected and flew off, right at the joint. Sparks and fluids sputtered out of the jagged wires. Bass clenched his fists, dirt collecting in his fingers. He was being disemboweled and there was nothing he could do about it.

Mega Man threw the leg away, grabbed the other one, and pulled. The metal crunched under his fingers as he ripped it out of its seam.

"No, no, NO!" Bass yelled.

Mega Man torqued and yanked, and finally the leg came off. Tiny explosions took place as fluid gushed out of the empty sockets. Bass looked like a broken toy. His head lay in the dirt, light fading from his eyes.

Mega Man raised the leg over his head like a samurai warrior. "You want to fuck with me? You want to..." His words garbled into a tribal scream. He brought the leg down on Bass's head. One of the gilded crests broke off. He hit again. And again.

Bass's head caved in with each successive blow, until it resembled an amorphous mass of metal shards pressed into the red earth.

When his blows were doing no further damage, he slumped, threw the leg away. "Now that's-"

An arc of electricity splashed forward and enveloped Mega Man. Tendrils of lightning snaked over his body as he arched his back.

The electricity disappeared, and Mega Man fell back, stiff as a doll.

Protoman limped out of the shadows, holding his burnt out plasma cannon, wisps of smoke tufting from the barrel. He stumbled forward, hand on his burning arm.

"Sorry, Rock," he said. "I'm so sorry."

* * *

Light faced his multiple monitors, back at home in his lab. With a blip, Protoman appeared behind him. The faint smell of carcinogens and creosote accompanied him.

"Blues? What..."

Against the red armor, the limp blue body hung in his arms.

"Conference is still going on. Thought you were there," Protoman said.

"I couldn't stay there anymore. There was an emergency... Rock? He's... What... what did you do?"

"I had to use it," Protoman said.

"Use what?" Light asked.

"The pulse frequency failsafe. I knew about it. I've known about it for a long time."

"What pulse frequency failsafe?"

"You always said you'd never introduce an emergency shut-off or EMP in any of your robots. You said that was a sign of mistrust. I always knew that was a lie."

"What are you talking about?" Light asked.

"A concentrated pulse, with resonation at 44.58hz, aimed directly at the EPROM. Activates a force feedback loop to the solar-pile generator that reverses output to input. Causes a full system overload, shut off, and BIOS wipe."

Light's eyes shifted back and forth as he processed this. Then his jaw dropped. "My god. You're right. I mean... I didn't even know."

"You mean, you didn't program it? In case any of your robots went rogue?"

"Not on purpose. I never thought of that. But you're right. It's a bug. A critical one. Imagine if anyone found out about it. I never even realized. I don't think anyone knew. How did _you_ find it?"

Protoman shrugged. "Plenty of time to study my own schematics. I always wondered why you never used it on me." He smirked. "I never considered that you didn't even know about it."

Light shook his head. "I wouldn't have used it on you, even if I did know. Wait, if the EPROM wipes, that means..." He looked at Mega Man's limp form.

Protoman nodded. "I'm sorry. It was the only way. He was... well, I'm glad you didn't see it."

Light closed his eyes, suppressing the tears. "I'm so sorry, Mega Man."

When he opened his eyes, Protoman stumbled to one knee. Light ran to his side. "Blues, I'm sorry. Were you damaged? Are you still... Blues, how did you fire the pulse? Please tell me you used a-"

Protoman held up his plasma cannon. The rim of the barrel was charred black, cracked like cooled lava.

"Oh, Blues. The blowback... the fallout. Your EPROM must be-"

"Plasma cannon's burnt out. Structural damage from the fight. Program assembly fading. Yeah, I'm not doing so hot." Protoman regained his composure and stood back up.

"Let's go the lab."

Dr. Light hustled to the next room. Protoman followed. Roll was stretched out one of the tables, cords snaking through her head.

"Roll?" he asked. "What happened?"

"She... she held onto the AI too long. It's my fault. I knew we had to get it out of her, but she insisted on staying. They were giving me a special award, and she passed out right on stage. I flew back without a word. I can't imagine what they think of me now."

Protoman's superior thinking let him deduce how she had gotten the AI in the first place. They had a similar neural interface - he could see himself making the same rationalizations in the same circumstance.

He lay Mega Man on the empty gurney next to Roll. One of the monitors displayed a progress bar, with multiple lines of code scrolling at lightning speed. "What's this?"

"I'm transferring the AI out to my supercomputer now. It's grown so much. It has tremendous potential." A brief flicker of optimism returned to Light's voice. "It would be wrong to delete it now. Not for Roll's sacrifice. Not now that Roll and Mega Man are unsalvageable."

"Unsalvageable?"

Light nodded. "Her hardware's taxed. Her neural cortex has been corrupted beyond recognition. It still exists in hibernated state, but if I reactivate any part of her, it will burn out."

"So in human terms, she's a vegetable."

"And Mega Man is beyond repair. You... you're failing." Light bent over the console with the progress meter. He sighed. "So this marks the end of an age. The age of Light robotics. I wish it hadn't ended so... inauspiciously."

"No new bodies?" Protoman asked.

"I would never do that." Light shook his head. "It wouldn't be the same. Hardware is inextricably linked with software when it comes to AI. They wouldn't be the same people. Some materials aren't even available anymore."

"Then new ones?"

Light sadly smiled and shook his head again. "Look at me, Blues." Light held out his wrists, as if shackled. "I'm old. My health is already starting to fail me. My hands cramp up after an hour at the keyboard. My heart clamps like a vice at the slightest stress. I'm sleeping more. I simply don't have enough time to dedicate to new innovations. It's over."

Protoman looked at his dewy eyes. He seemed to have aged seventy years in a single instant.

Light bent over the console, turning away from Protoman. "The world can never know what happened. This whole ordeal. If anyone found out what I'd done... Or what they've done..."

"They won't. That's guaranteed. Anyone who could confess is dead. Any evidence is missing or inconclusive."

"Good, good..." Light hobbled back to the monitors. "I guess that's it then. I don't know what you want to do, Protoman. I don't know how long you have before shutdown. A couple hours? Days?"

"Depends on how I allocate my systems. But it doesn't matter. Death is inevitable, always has been. You're right. It is the end of an age. I suppose the best thing, given the circumstances, would be for us all to go quietly."

Light nodded. "Yes. Yes, I suppose. That is a noble sentiment."

"But..." Protoman pointed to a third, unoccupied gurney next to Mega Man and Roll. "I do have one request though. Father."


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Roll stood on a grassy field with slight hills and valleys. A slight breeze ruffled the one or two blond hairs straying out of her ponytail.

She had no idea where she was. She had no memory of this place and couldn't locate it using geographic markings, such as terrain shape or sun position.

"Hello?" she called out. "Is anyone here?"

The last thing she remembered clearly was sitting next to Dr. Light. After that, everything was hazy bits and pieces floating in her mind. She knew what had happened, but couldn't recall it.

Rock walked up the hill, his black, mussed hair waving in the wind. He was not in armor, but a matching color scheme of shirt and pants. "Roll?"

"Rock? Where are we... what are we doing here?"

"I don't know. This isn't any place I've ever been. And I feel strange. Like I'm overly corporeal, if that makes any sense."

"I do too. Even this place. It seems real, but just a little outside real. Like it's too good to be true."

"Pretty close," said a third voice nearby. Protoman appeared, walking up the other side of the hill. He was also bereft of battle armor, but wore sunglasses in lieu of his helmet. "It is real. But only in a way we perceive."

"Blues? What are you doing here?" Roll asked.

"And what are you talking about?" Rock asked.

"Good, doesn't appear to be any pre-cog cycles lost," Protoman said. "We're in a construct - at least humans would call it that - that runs simulated data through our CPU cycles. It's hard to explain without revealing its exact nature. And if I do that, it loses some of its charm. Think of it as an astral projection into shared dreamspace."

"Then shouldn't we be able to sense that? I can't use any of my trackers or scanning equipment," Mega Man said.

"Suffice it to say, everything's been 'dumbed down'. However, the upside is that brings us a closer approximation to humanity, since we no longer have physical bodies."

Mega Man touched his chest, examined his arm. "Hair? I have arm hair. I never had that before." Protoman smirked as he watched them. Rock plucked at the wispy black hairs. "And it hurts. I mean, it hurts-hurts. Not in a force-feedback way. I can feel abstract pain."

"I have veins. And skin marks." Roll pulled her shirt open. "And breasts. I mean, real breasts. They look real, they have imperfections. There are hair follicles. One is slightly bigger than the other. And..." She dug her hand down the back of her pants.

She had everything. Every protrusion and orifice. No substitutions. "What happened? Are we human?" Roll asked.

"Simulated human. Close to it as you can get, in a stateless virtual space. You get the whole package. Physicality, hormones, sensations. It's all there."

"But it's an illusion," Roll half-said, half-asked.

"Depends how you interpret illusion," Blues replied. "I know I can't tell the difference. This feels like it's been my body all my life. That's what's nice about this place. It's our own little world. Separate from humanity's taboos and societal morals. They won't ever get in here. They can't judge us, can't see us. And we won't ever leave," Protoman said. "We can't. What's done is done. But now we have what we wanted."

"Blues, what are you saying?" Mega Man asked.

"I'm saying," Protoman took off his sunglasses. For the first time, Mega Man and Roll saw his sharp blue eyes. "That we're free."

Roll glanced to him, then back to Mega Man. "I guess... I guess he's right."

"We can do everything we couldn't do before," Mega Man shrugged. "The limits are gone. We can explore ourselves how we never could in reality."

"We can have sex the way we were meant to. Naturally. Normally. Like humans."

Roll placed a hand on Rock's cheek. "Become one family again," she said. "Without anyone judging us."

She pressed her lips against his, and they kissed. Her tongue moved around his. Instead of mechanically operating her body, her body was doing the work for her. She massaged his lips with hers, and could feel so much more sensation. The smell of his skin, the slipperiness of his saliva.

"Hey, can I get in on this action?" Protoman asked. He smirked and raised his eyebrows.

Roll smiled so her dimples disappeared, and approached him. She touched his cheek. "You have beautiful blue eyes," she said.

He shrugged, "No real point to hide them anymore."

"We're all friends here," Mega Man added.

Roll giggled. She clutched his butt and brought him closer in. He had the same smell as his brother. His tongue was a bit faster, more rugged.

...

Finally, Roll collapsed on top of Rock. Protoman collapsed on top of her. She kissed Mega Man, then turned to kiss Protoman. She laid her head down and closed her eyes, a wide smile on her face.

"Thank you," she said, to no one in particular.

* * *

The CPU usage on the construct box spiked, then petered out to almost nothing. That was the signal.

Dr. Light powered down the machine. He had no idea what was going on in there, and didn't want to know. It was their playground. In a few days, the construct would fade, lose power, and their essences would dissipate into the world wide network. And that's how they wanted it.

Light turned away, back to the computer console. The AI had finished uploading and compiled successfully. The whole thing took up most of his free space. If he was going to do anything with it, he'd have to get new equipment.

Light stroked his beard as he stared at the "_Save Project As..._" prompt box. _Would_ he be working on it? Would he bother? What else would he do with his time?

He had two choices: stay in the house, devoid of occupants, or crack this new puzzle. If he bothered giving the AI a body, it couldn't be like his old models. It would have to be new enough to process the throughput, and tough enough to handle it. Some of the people at the convention had given him ideas - new advancements for robotics, especially that rep from Hayatom Inc., and the fellow working on the new titanium alloy.

Light shrugged. He might as well see where it led.

The prompt box waited. Light tapped lightly on the keyboard. He was always so bad at inventing with names and project codewords. But he couldn't stare at the screen forever, stuck on something insignificant.

"Project X", he typed.

#END#


End file.
